Recipe: Roasted Tomato Soup

Oh, the big box of tomato saga continues!  We seeded, roasted and froze the vast majority for later use.  And, guess what?!?  This is one of those later uses!

My inspiration recipe was Ina Garten's Roasted Tomato Basil Soup.  I'm sure it's perfectly delicious as-is but the local eating challenge means no canned plum tomatoes and I don't have any chicken or vegetable stock made yet.  Plus, she's using an alarming amount of oil in that recipe! Thus, I used fresh tomatoes and the juice of the roasted tomatoes instead of canned and water instead of stock.  Because I was using fresh tomatoes, I also mixed up the cooking steps.  And, in the end, it tasted so good with minimal basil, I decided to leave it as is.  Oh, and I don't have a food mill.  In short, at the end of the day, my version is probably nothing like Ina's. (Don't you hate it when the comments on online recipes are like "This recipe was fabulous!  I changed everything about it though.  It's a keeper!"  I do.)

Here's my version:

Ingredients
4 Tbsp olive oil, divided
3 lbs slicing/non-paste tomatoes, seeded, quartered. Reserve juice/seeds
2 large slicing tomatoes, chopped
1.5 onions, sliced thin
6 cloves of garlic
1/4 tsp of crushed red pepper flakes (or to taste)
1/4 c basil
3 sprigs fresh thyme
4 c water
salt & pepper




Directions
1. Preheat oven to 400*F. Arrange the 3 lbs of seeded tomatoes on a baking sheet.  Drizzle with 1 Tbsp of olive oil, salt & pepper.  Roast for 45 minutes.  Meanwhile, put chopped tomatoes, basil, reserved juice & salt/pepper in a bowl. Set aside.  (You can do this step in advance.)

2. In a large saucepan, add 3 Tbsp of olive oil, onions, garlic and crushed red pepper.  Saute until onions are brown around the edges, about 10 minutes.

3. Add chopped tomatoes mixture to the onions and cook until the liquid reduces by half or until dragging a spoon across the bottom of the pan leaves a channel (like with risotto).  Taste for seasoning & adjust if necessary.

4. Add roasted tomatoes, any juices from roasting, thyme sprigs and water to pan.  Cook for 40 minutes.


5. Fish out the thyme sprigs.  Use immersion blender (or food processor or blender) to puree soup.  Taste for seasoning.  If you want something smoother, you can pour through a fine-mesh sieve.

Recipe: Pasta with Raw Tomato Sauce

This was the first recipe my husband ever gave me. You see, we met over the interwebs and in one of his emails he raved about what he recently made with a bunch of tomatoes. Except, his directions left me a bit confused & I made it wrong. And it was so gross.

Luckily, he redeemed himself shortly afterwards with a delicious dinner of puttanesca with prosecco-soaked berries topped with cassis for dessert. :::swoon:::

Anyway, back to *this* recipe...

Made properly, this is remarkably good and an excellent choice for a potluck or picnic. And, by "properly" I don't just mean technique; this recipe is so simple that you really need fresh, perfectly ripe tomatoes, tender basil and quality olive oil. The other keys, are to use the proper amount of oil even though it's kind of alarming and to let the mixture marinate as long as possible. You see, the tomato juices and olive oil make kind of a vinaigrette which forms the "sauce." I like using more acidic tomatoes for this, rather than sweeter ones. Additionally, if you aren't a fan of the garlicky bite, then pop a few of your garlic cloves into the pasta pot for the last few minutes of cooking.

Ingredients (Serves a crowd)
3 lbs of tomatoes, chopped
4-5 cloves of garlic, finely minced
3/4 cup of good extra virgin olive oil
1 large bunch of basil, leaves torn
Salt & Pepper

2 lbs of farfalle (or other fun pasta shape)

Directions
1. Mix first four ingredients together in a large bowl. Salt and pepper to taste. Let marinate in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours.
2. Prepare pasta according to box directions.
3. Combine hot pasta with cool tomato sauce.
4. Devour. Possibly right out of the pan.

Recipe: Hot Tomato & Pepper Sauce/Salsa

In theory, this is supposed to be a salsa. But thanks to me using my bumper crop of kung pao peppers (and only de-seeding half) this turned into quite the spicy condiment. Because I didn't use paste tomatoes it was kind of thin out of the pot to be what most Americans would consider to be a salsa, but it thickened up when I canned it. Either way, it is wicked good. I can't wait to try it on tacos. Or greens. Or tortilla chips. Or anywhere I want a spicy, vinegary kick.

This recipe is from Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving. I *highly* recommend this book for all things canning. There are loads of delicious recipes and good explanations of canning techniques.

Ingredients (Makes 2-3 pints)

3 cups chopped tomatoes
3 cups chopped peppers (I used 1 bell pepper & the rest kung pao, with half of the kung pao seeded & the other half with the seeds intact. Ball's recipe uses seeded jalapenos.)
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup cider vinegar
6 cloves garlic, finely minced (from my garden!!)
2 tsp dried oregano
1.5 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cumin

Directions
1. In large sauce pan, combine all ingredients. Bring to boil over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally.
2. Reduce heat to gentle boil and cook until slightly thickened, about 10 minutes or so.
3. If you want to preserve, you may either can this recipe (using sterilized cans & processing pints in a boiling water bath for 15 minutes) or freeze cooled sauce.