Tomato Soup-mmm mmm good!

The holidays are over, and the seemingly endless cycle of baking and tasting and eating and baking and tasting and eating has finally ended, I find myself wanting very simple meals for the next few days. A hearty soup, a crisp fresh salad tossed with a simple vinagrette, a good loaf of crusty bread fresh out of the oven -this is my idea of food heaven right now.

My local supermarket actually had decent looking plum tomatoes today, they were plump and red, firm but not hard. I managed to pick out enough nice ones to make up a pound and a half. To make up the other half pound I decided to splurge on the very expensive vine-ripened tomatoes that look so red and perfect all year round. The soup (recipe to follow) and a simple salad are dinner tonight-yum!.

Tomato Soup

Ingredients

• 2 lbs plum tomatoes-blanched, peeled, seeded and chopped
• 3 large cloves of garlic-mashed
• 4 shallots-diced
• a generous handful of fresh basil leaves
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 4 cups chicken stock
• pinch of salt
• Fresh ground black pepper to taste
• 1 teaspoon sugar (optional)

Method

Heat the oil over medium heat, add the garlic and shallots, and cook for 5 minutes. Tear the basil into small peices and add to the pot- continue cooking for about 1 min. longer. Add the tomatoes, stock, salt and pepper and bring to a boil. Let boil for 5 minutes then reduce heat and simmer about 30 minutes stirring frequently. I like to mush up the tomatoes while I stir letting the soup get a little thick, (thats pretty lazy of me, if i were serving it to guests I'd take the time to actually puree it). Sometimes, the soup can get a little acidic, so when that happens I just add a bit of sugar to cut the acid. Serves 4.

Written by Deb on January 2, 2003 01:27 PM