Roasted tomato soup.

Okay it clearly isn’t tomato season yet but I’ve been craving roasted tomato soup.  What to do, what to do?  Roast them!  Roasting tomatoes will take even the most horrid, hard, normally tasteless tomatoes and make them pure perfection!  Here’s how…

Set your oven for 275 degrees.  On a large cookie sheet take 6-8 larger tomatoes and quarter them.  Make sure your cookie sheet has sides to avoid dripping.  Drizzle them with olive oil, salt and pepper.  Then add 6-8 smashed garlic cloves.  Place in the oven and let roast for 4-6 hours.  If you don’t have that kind of time on your hands or are more impatient, bump the temp up to 325 for about 3 hours.  You’re house will smell incredible while roasting!!!  It is the most intoxicating smell 🙂

Once you’ve removed the tomatoes from the oven, simply set aside.

Soup ingredients & directions:

Roasted tomatoes (about 3-4 lbs)
2 tbl olive oil
1 tbl sea salt
Ground black pepper
1 large onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbl butter
1/2 tsp of red pepper flakes
2 c of chopped fresh basil
1 tsp of dried thyme
1 tsp of Rosemary
1 qt of chicken stock or vegetable stock (vegetarian option)

Directions:

In a large Dutch oven, pour 2 tbl of olive oil & butter in the pan.  Let this heat up and then add the onions and garlic.  Cook until translucent over medium flame.  Add the remaining ingredients.  With a stick blender, blend the soup until completely pureed.  You can also use a food mill or work in batches with your blender.  Season to taste.  To serve, top with Asiago shavings.  Enjoy!

— Knead to Cook