Roasted Tomato Soup

Well I had planned on posting this right before my laptop crashed and burned but today sounds as good as then especially here in Central Kentucky today where it is cold blustery and drizzly. Now I understand we are beyond the very very end of semi decent fresh Roma tomatoes and yes this is much cheaper to make in August rather than Mid October but who wants to eat Roasted Tomato soup in mid August??? See…my “logic” is not totally illogical. Well it is but we wont go there.

All ye denizens of the WikiJan world can thank Kathryn for this recipe, she was looking for something to do with all the tomatoes that needed to be used while she was house sitting the end of this summer. So off the cuff while working the bar I listed off a few things she would do with her bounty and in the course of chatting we hit upon Roasted Tomato soup. One with a bit of zip and great flavor that can watch itself while you are engaged in other activities.

Well a few weeks after that conversation we had a rather nasty grey blustery morning I decided to take the soup recipe I gave to Kathryn our for a shake down cruse. Man oh man the smells that came from the kitchen…roast-y toasty  garlic pungent Rosemary, peppery accents, tomatoes…tangy tomatoes all wafting though the house. The only smell missing was the basil awaiting its time to shine.

This is one of those lazy afternoon scuffing around the house want to curl up in front of the TV in a warm blanket recipes.   It takes about 1 1/2 to 2 hours but you are not active in the kitchen working 90% of the time is oven time,  hence the blanket and TV time.  So lets get started…

Roasted Tomato Soup

3-ish pounds of Roma Tomatoes

1 medium Onion

5-6 garlic cloves

4 big sprigs of Fresh Rosemary

1/2 TS Chipotle pepper (optional)

1 TS fresh Ground Pepper

1 TS Kosher Salt

Olive Oil

1qt Chicken Stock

1 c Heavy Cream (optional)

Fresh Basil

1/4 c  Good Parm or Ex. Sharp White Cheddar

Cut Tomatoes in half from end to end removing seeds, place on cookie sheet with a lip cut side up. Slice Onion thinly. Peel garlic by mashing them with the side of your knife to pop off the papery skin. Break twigs of Rosemary into smaller pieces. Sprinkle tomatoes with salt and pepper then pull the garlic cloves into smallish bits sprinkling them over the tomatoes. Sprinkle the onions over the tomatoes as well as the bits of Rosemary. Drizzle olive oil over all the tomatoes.

look at everyone playing nice in the pan

Toss in a 400 degree oven for 60-90 minutes. You want to have dark edges around the tomatoes and the onions. There will be lovely juices collected in the bottom of the pan in the end and you really want all those juices for your soup.

Oh so good…

Toss the Rosemary its done doing its thing for your soup. Everything else goes into the blender…including those lovely juices that leaked out of the tomatoes and the chipotle pepper.

yeah scrap all of that off!

Give it a whirl till most of the tomatoes start to smooth out then start add the chicken stock as it blends to keep everything loose and happy in the blender.  Once everything is smooth then add the cream if you would like.

all that dark juiciness is a flavor bomb!

The smell is amazing!

Pour the soup into a heavy sauce pan and gently warm, then its into the bowl topped with a sprinkle of parm/cheddar, basil and if you would like a grind or two of pepper. Add some crusty sourdough garlic bread, then its back to the couch and warm blanket for some S.A.T.I.S.F.A.C.T.I.O.N!

Slurp down and enjoy.

Now go play with your food.

WikiJan