Roasted Tomato Soup and Grilled Cheese
Everyone in our family loves a creamy soup and this roasted tomato soup tops our list. I first made this soup in the winter, with store bought tomatoes that have traveled a long way to make it to our grocery stores. The result is that these tomatoes are almost tasteless in comparison to our home grown gems. But in this recipe, the simple step of roasting these well-traveled winter tomatoes before turning them into soup turns the ‘blah’ into ‘yummy’.
Roasted Tomato Soup and Grilled Cheese Recipe
Special Note: An important ingredient in this recipe, actually in any tomato based recipe, is the butter, smoothing out the bitterness that can follow a winter tomato. In fact, when I’m making anything with a cooked tomatoe base, like a fresh tomato sauce, my final tasting will include checking for ‘bitterness’ and if noted, it often only takes about a tablespoon of butter to ‘round out’ the sauce.
Ingredients:
2 1/2 lbs fresh tomatoes (or thereabouts…)
6 cloves garlic
2 medium sweet yellow onions (spanish, wala wala, etc.)
1/2 olive oil
1 tsp kosher salt and 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 quart chicken stock
4 bay leaves
4 tbsp butter
3/4c heavy cream, optional
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.
Wash and cut tomatoes into 2” pieces. Peel and cut onions into 2” pieces. Peel cloves of garlic. Put all 3 ingredients into a big mixing bowl.
Drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper. Mix well and spread on a large roasting sheet.
Roast for 20 or 30 minutes, or until caramelized. (Keep an eye on the roasting as the time will be different in each oven and the kind of tomato being used. Personally, I have to be careful here as I do have a bit of a habit of letting things ‘over roast’…as is evidenced by the fact I have been known to set the smoke detector off when I open the oven. Note: this is the first clue you may have ‘over roasted’ whatever is in your oven :)!)
Remove roasted tomatoes, garlic and onion from the oven and transfer to a large stock pot. Add 3/4’s of the chicken stock, bay leaves and butter. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 1 1/2 hours or until liquid has reduced by a third. (This ‘reducing’ here, with the bay leaves, intensifies the rich tomato flavor of this soup…along with the butter ;))
Once reduced, remove the bay leaves and then puree the soup with an immersion blender until smooth (or in a blender…just be careful with the hot soup expanding and pushing the lid off of the blender…been there, done that…and what a hot mess…lol!!)
Return soup to low heat, add cream (if using) and remaining chicken stock, to get desired consistency.
Season with salt and freshly ground pepper.
Last secret tip ;): Tomatoes can taste very different at various times in the year. Occasionally, when tasting for seasoning (think salt and pepper), I’ve been known to ‘sneak in’ say 1 to 2 tbsp of dark brown sugar. Winter store bought tomatoes can sometimes need a little help from the chef ;).
Grilled Cheese: These are pretty simple. Two pieces of bread with some cheddar cheese in the middle. Butter one side and place buttered side down on cooking surface and then carefully butter the top side. Turn on burners and watch closely. I used a baguette here and these little guys cooked really quickly! These little tasty treats were just the right size to get the crunch and feel of a grilled cheese sandwich, and there was no need to stop at just one!
