Roasted Tomato Soup

This weekend we gathered up the last of our tomatoes and said goodbye to our garden until next year, as I reflect back I can honestly say I was able to cook many meals using the vegetables and herbs that we grew out of our 20 x 20 ft. garden. Not everything we planted grew this year but all in all it was well worth the effort!

Since I had a big bowl of tomatoes staring at me I decided to make Roasted Tomato Soup, something I never tried before. I remember seeing Elaine's version and how good it looked, it wasn't complicated at all to do and it seemed like a great way to use up a bunch of tomatoes.

Whole unpeeled garlic cloves are roasted along with the tomatoes and then the pulp is squeezed into the pot.

Using an immersion blender makes the process go really fast and incorporates all the flavors together.

The end result will be a smooth creamy texture packed with tons of flavor, it sure beats a can or a box any day!

I adapted my version slightly by adding some tomato paste, I had very juicy tomatoes so the paste helped with that, and I also used half and half instead of heavy cream because that's what I had on hand.

ROASTED TOMATO SOUP

Ingredients:

4 pounds tomatoes,

5 garlic cloves, unpeeled

4 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon kosher salt

Fresh ground black pepper

1 medium onion, chopped

1 teaspoon dried oregano

2 teaspoons sugar

2 teaspoons of tomato paste

1 tablespoon butter

3 cups chicken stock

1/2 cup of half and half

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Place tomatoes, cut sides up, on a large baking sheet lined with aluminum foil. Add unpeeled garlic cloves to the tomatoes. Drizzle 3 tablespoons of the olive oil all over the tomatoes and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast for 1 hour, let the tomatoes cool for a little and then peel garlic.

Cook onion, oregano and sugar in 1 tablespoon of olive oil and the butter in a heavy pot until onion is soft, about 5 minutes. Add tomatoes, garlic and stock and simmer, covered, for 20 minutes.

Place an immersion blender into the pot and puree the soup. If you don't have an immersion blender pour the soup into a regular blender and puree. You may have to do it in batches though.

Feel free to strain your soup if you see small seeds or a bit of tomato skin, I didn't have to with my immersion blender, it was fine. Pour strained soup into a small clean pot, stir in half and half or cream and taste for seasoning, I added a tiny bit more sugar to mine.

Now grab a bowl and a ladle!

I garnished mine with homemade pesto, the fresh basil flavor went perfect with the soup.

After we had some for lunch I put the rest away into containers for freezing when the cold Chicago weather really comes on strong.

Buon Appetito!