Monday, January 17, 2011

Tomato Soup.


I've been making a lot of soups lately. Not only are they good lunch choices, but it's a one pot meal that can't be beat. I can't remember the last time I made tomato soup, but I think it was when I was still living in the midwest. It's also been a while since I've made a grilled cheese sandwich and what goes better with grilled cheese, then the perfect bowl of homemade tomato soup?!?!?

Without time to peruse all of my cookbooks, I opted for a "google" search and ended up selecting Michael Chiarello's tomato soup featured on the Food Network site. A few red flags upfront, this recipe calls for 3/4 c. evoo and 2 tbs. butter. That's alot of evoo and alot of butter, even for my taste buds, let alone arteries. Given that the recipe calls for only 1 14-oz can of diced tomatoes, I highly recommend cutting the amount of olive oil by at least 50% (if not a little more) and if you're going to use cream, I'd leave out the butter. It's decadent enough with one or the other. But it's your call and your arteries.

Now tomatoes are not in season this time of year, it's a great recipe for using canned tomatoes (just make sure you get a brand that is organic or at least super high quality like San Marzanos, it really does make all the difference). What's different about this recipe is that M.C. instructs you to roast the canned tomatoes (after draining and reserving the liquid), which intensifies the sweet, subtle nature of these apple-red jewels. In under 40 minutes, four servings of homemade creamy tomato soup are ready and all you need is that grilled cheese sandwich, of course. I made mine on sourdough with asiago, fontina and mozzarella.

5 comments:

  1. Wow. Your tomato soup looks amazing!!! If I try it with my new immersion blender (yay!) I would probably have to cut WAY back on the evoo...and maybe use half & half instead of the cream. Do you think that would work?
    Thanks for sharing your fun cooking and food adventures! ;)

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  2. Yes, reduce, reduce, reduce. I'm still scratching my head over all that evoo and butter. Half and half will totally suffice too as a substitution for the heavy cream. Enjoy! And thanks for following!!!

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  3. It's amazing how good a soup made from *good* organic canned tomatoes can be! Much better than one made from those awful out-of-season store-bought tomatoes. But oh my goodness, you're right, the original recipe calls for an awful lot of fat!

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  4. Jean, I'm still scratching my head over that one....re the fat content. But it's still a great soup recipe once you reduce the evoo and butter.

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