Recipe adapted from Mark Peel’s NEW CLASSIC FAMILY DINNERS
This recipe isn’t hard, but it has a lot of steps. This is great to make when you feel like being in the kitchen for a bit. This recipe is not great if you’re in a rush to get food on a table.
Also, this soup has no dairy or meat!
Roasted Tomato Soup
5-6 pounds vine-ripened tomatoes
2/3 Cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Kosher Salt + Fresh Ground Pepper
6 ounces bread (preferably without seeds, preferably whole wheat)
1 Large Onion (Coarse chop)
2 Stalks of Celery (Coarse chop)
1/2 Pound Leeks (2 small or 1 Big… Don’t skip this!)
1 Small Red Bell Pepper
1/2 Dried Chili (Or you could use 1/2 TSP red pepper flakes, depending on how hot you want it)
1 Head of garlic (Rough Chop)
Handful of thyme (fresh)
Handful of Basil (fresh)
Handful of Parsley (fresh)
My additions: 1 1/2 Tablespoons Tomato Paste, and 2 Tablespoons Maple Syrup (Both of these things were to help out the acid situation – my tomatoes weren’t so sweet… taste your roasted tomatoes to determine)
1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. One rack in the center, one rack in the top third. For round tomatoes cut them in half through the equator. For Roma tomatoes, cut them in half lengthwise. Toss those guys in a large bowl with 6 tablespoons olive oil, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Put them cut side down on a sheet pan (see above). Place on the middle and upper racks of the oven. Roast for 45 minutes, or more importantly, until they’re done: they will have blistered slightly browned skins and the tomatoes will be soft. In my oven, the top rack finished 5 minutes before the middle one – so check it out, the tomatoes may be done at different times.
2. While those guys are roasting, cube the bread and toss it with 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Put it on a baking sheet and toast it in the oven (or toaster oven!) 10-15 minutes or until they’re crisp/done
3. While all that’s happening, get your veggie base going. Heat 3 tablespoons olive oil over med. heat in a soup pot or Dutch oven (if you want to hire me for something, I accept payments in Le Creuset). Add the onion, celery, leeks, bell pepper, chili, and some salt and pepper to the pot. Cook veggies over medium low for 15 -20 minutes until softened with light color. Stir often. Then add all that garlic for another 5 minutes. Stir often. Add the tomato paste and get all the veggies coated.
4. Add the roasted tomatoes, bread cubes, 1 quart of water, and bring everything to a simmer (turn the heat to Medium High). Add some more salt and pepper. Simmer 30 minutes, stir it often so that nothing burns on the bottom.
5. Here’s where it gets tricky. The recipe suggests you remove the soup from the heat and pour it through a food mill fitted with a fine blade. Do you have a food mill? Do you know what one is?
I don’t have one (yet). Also, I had a bread issue. Mine had seeds, it’s all I had so I used it.
So. If you don’t have a mill, this is what I did: I blended the soup with an immersion blender. You can use a regular blender if you don’t have an immersion one (but immersion blenders are cheap and worth the investment). I then took a regular fine mesh strainer and strained the soup. I caught A LOT OF SEEDS, tomato and otherwise. If you have a food mill, pour the soup through it, and then blend the soup after it’s gone through the mill. This suggested method will probably create ultimate smoothness.
6. I heated the strained soup, and added any seasoning I felt it needed. It was silky, had depth, and was creamy without cream. Delicious!
I served the soup with roasted chicken pesto salad and broccoli crunch salad. At home, I’d probably want to eat it with grilled cheese.