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.

the honey eater » roasted

Roasted Tomato Soup