Roasted Tomato Soup

naomi — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 20:50:48 +0000

I wish I had a nice glamor shot of the finished soup to show you. I wish I had more than just these images of of tomatoes ready to be roasted on baking pans, but that’s not the way it worked out.

It was cold. And rainy. We were hungry and tired. We’d been shopping for Bosnian food in Astoria all day (Klas flour!). What’s more, this soup was really, really good.

It was one of those days when the kitchen gods smiled on me. We got home, and I was intent on making this before my tomatoes became moldy and sad. When I was nearly done, I realized I’d forgotten entirely about the half cup of cream the recipe calls for. Luckily for me, I just happened to have exactly 1/2 cup of cream, leftover from making ice cream, waiting for me in the fridge. Thank goodness.

Roasted Tomato Soup
adapted from Gourmet

We both agreed that there could be even more garlic involved, and I would have added more, but I had already used the entire claw of garlic and had no more.

The original recipe calls for pushing the soup through a fine-mesh sieve and I just didn’t feel like it. Sadly, there were these weird pieces of tomato skin floating in the soup, not off-putting, but not great either. My suggestion: Just tear of the peels after the tomatoes come out of the oven, problem solved.

I could tell you that this will be my last tomato post for a while (my love of heirloom tomatoes has become a bit of a joke ’round these parts) but we both know that would be a lie, and I ain’t no lying liar. There was the ratatouille I made that I need to tell you about, and then there’s pizza, and then. . . . Well, I’m sure something will come to mind.

4 lb tomatoes, halved lengthwise
6 garlic cloves, left unpeeled
3 tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1/2 tsp dried oregano
2 tsp sugar
2 tbsp unsalted butter
3 cups chicken stock
1/2 cup heavy cream
salt and pepper, to taste

Preheat oven to 350-degrees.

Arrange tomatoes, cut side up (I didn’t read the instructions and placed them cut-side down, it was fine), in one layer on a large baking sheet along with the 6 (or more) cloves of garlic. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Roast for one hour, then let cool in pan. Peel garlic cloves and tomatoes.

Cook the onion, oregano, and sugar in butter in a 6- to 8-quart pot over medium-low heat, stirring frequently, until the onion has softened, about five minutes.

Add the tomatoes, garlic, and stock, and simmer, covered, 20 minutes.

Puree soup in a blender. Pour soup into a clean pot and stir in the cream. Add salt and pepper to taste and simmer two minutes. Enjoy!

*This soup is almost the exact recipe for my wintertime tomato soup, which calls for roasting canned tomatoes.

Tomatoes (and sauce)

naomi — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 13:31:47 +0000

Yesterday, at the farmers market, I went to visit the pickle man, to try the pickled green beans and he said it was nice to finally talk to me because “he sees me there every day.” It’s true, I am there all the time. I love it, I don’t love the crowds in Union Square, but I do love meandering through picking out perfect fruits and vegetables.

I’m usually there by myself, I prefer it that way, it allows me to move at my own pace and go back and forth as many times as I like. I’m very picky about whom I buy from. There are only two farmers I buy tomatoes from, Tim Stark, (I call him heirloom Tim in my mind) who has some of the most beautiful tomatoes in the market (his are the little cherries pictured above) and Leni’s farm who are there Mondays, Fridays and Saturdays and are usually at the southern end of the market (theirs are the striped plums in the wooden bowl).

As much as I love the idea of tomatoes, I hate eating them raw. Even really exceptional tomatoes are only okay in their natural state but once they’re cooked I can’t get enough of them.

I’ve been really into roasting tomatoes this summer. Roasting brings out the sweetness in tomatoes and turns them into an other-worldly dish. Earlier this summer I also made this wonderful tomato and corn pie. I’ve been meaning to tell you about it but wanted to make it again and roast the tomatoes first to get rid of some of the excess juiciness.

Most recently I made tomato sauce, because that’s what I do at the end of the summer. I usually blanch them quickly to remove the skins but decided this summer that I should (what do you think?) roast them. I was glad I did, the sauce was full-bodied and rich. We used it to make pizza with parmesan, mozzarella and arugula. We pat ourselves on the back for our mad pizza making skills and decided that I had to go and get another 5 pounds of those beautiful striped plum tomatoes and make some more sauce.

Tomato sauce á la Naomi

This is a very rustic tomato sauce. You could puree it to make it more marinara style. Or actually chop your tomatoes. I just peeled them and ripped them apart with my hands.

1 medium-sized onion
3 cloves garlic
3-4 pounds of the most beautiful, ripe, delicious, happy tomatoes you can find
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp butter
salt and pepper, to taste

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil. Place tomatoes on baking sheet, place baking sheet in oven.

Roast tomatoes about 10-15 minutes, until their skin begins to crack, flipping them half-way through.

While the tomatoes cool, chop and dice your onion and garlic.

Place a medium-large pot over medium heat. Add oil and butter. Toss in the onion and let cook, stirring occasionally, for 1-2 minutes. Add the garlic and let cook until the onion is translucent.

In the meantime, peel your tomatoes and rip them into smallish pieces. I removed some of the seeds, though not all.

Add the tomatoes to the onion mixture. Bring to a boil, lower heat, cover, and let simmer 1-3 hours (I realize this is highly unspecific and not very helpful, cook it as long as you can, stirring and tasting, and stirring and tasting. I think I had mine going about 2 hours last night).

the honey eater » heirloom tomatoes

Roasted Tomato Soup

Tomatoes (and sauce)