Roasted Tomato Soup

Mmmm... tomato soup and grilled cheese! This is a great fall dinner or even a lunch. I've made many a tomato soup recipe and have finally found one that we really love from the Barefoot Contessa. The key is roasting the tomatoes so they caramelize a little bit before you blend the soup together. This soup freezes really nicely too so be sure to make a full batch.


Time: 1.5 hours
Serves: 6-8

Ingredients

• 3-4 lbs of roma tomatoes
• 1 28 oz. can of San Marzano tomatoes
• 4 cups of chicken broth (2 14 oz. cans)
• 1/2 of a large onion
• 4-5 cloves of garlic
• handful of fresh basil
• few sprigs of fresh thyme
• 1 rind of Parmesan cheese
• olive oil
• 2 TBSP butter
• 1 TBSP salt
• 1 tsp sugar
• fresh ground black pepper
• crushed red pepper

Prep

1. Preheat your oven to 400°
2. Slice your roma tomatoes in half and lay on a foil-lined baking sheet. I took the little cores out of the tops of mine too but that's probably not necessary.
3. To your tomatoes, add 4 TBSP of olive oil, 1 TBSP of salt, 1 tsp of sugar and some fresh ground pepper. Toss this all together with your hands and put in the oven.

4. Roast the tomatoes for 45 minutes.
5. While your tomatoes cook, peel and chop your onion and garlic. You should have about 1 1/2 cups of chopped onions.

Cook

1. When your tomatoes are almost finished roasting, heat 2 TBSP of butter with 2 TBSP of olive oil in a large pot or dutch oven.
2. Add about 1/2 tsp of crushed red pepper to your olive oil and butter as it melts.
3. Once it's melted, add your onions and garlic to the pot and cook for 10 minutes or so until your onions start to brown.

4. Add your can of tomatoes, with the juices, your 4 cups of chicken stock and your basil and thyme. I stripped the leaves off the thyme springs as I added them and just added the basil leaves whole.

5. When your tomatoes are nice and caramelized from the oven, add those, along with any juices, to the pot.
6. Turn your heat to high to bring the soup to a boil and then turn it to low to simmer for 40 minutes.
7. If you have a rind of parmesan, add it to the soup as it simmers.
8. Use a hand blender to puree the soup (or use a regular blender or food processor) and serve hot, preferably with a grilled cheese sandwich.