Garlic/Tomato Soup

So Much Food, So Little Time



I eat approximately 730 meals a year, 365 lunches and 365 dinners (breakfast is usually just yogurt and a banana). On the face of it this is 730 opportunities to cook, but it isn't really. I seldom cook lunch, which generally consists of either a sandwich or leftovers or fruit and cheese, so that cuts the opportunities approximately in half.

Then there's the fact that much of what I cook does produce leftovers - you can't really make beef daube for one from scratch, nor would you want to because meals like beef daube are always better on the second or third day. I figure I have leftovers for supper about four nights a week and if I factor in the times I pick up a steak-in-a-sack at the local deli, order out for pizza, or have dinner with friends or family then I'm preparing only about 130 meals to prepare from scratch each year.

Given my various cooking obligations I really do need to make an effort to try out about 100 new dishes a year.

Of those, I'd estimate around 30 are old favorites that I eat about once a year: mac-n-cheese, corned beef and cabbage, spaghetti marinara, and so on. So now I'm down to an opportunity to cook about 100 new dishes a year - and given my obligations I really do need to make an effort to try out about 100 new dishes a year, which makes repeating something I liked unusual.

A couple of summers ago I made a Tomato/Garlic soup for a class on soups and really liked the way it turned out. Lately I've had a strong urge to eat it again. It's best with fresh tomatoes in season, but this time I used canned tomatoes. The garlic is added in two lots here to get two different flavor intensities. The first amount is sautéed with other vegetables at the beginning of the recipe in good Italian or Spanish fashion. The second goes in near the end to provide more bite. The tomatoes provide most of the liquid.

Garlic/Tomato Soup
Serves 4 - 6.
Adapted from a recipe by Barbara Kafka’s Soup: A Way of Life.

1 28-oz. can diced tomatoes
10 - 12 cloves garlic — smashed, peeled, and coarsely chopped
1 med red bell pepper — seeded and diced
1/2 c olive oil
2 tbsp fresh thyme leaves
3 tbsp basil — finely chopped plus additional basil, chiffonade, for garnish
2 tsp coarse salt, or to taste
2 c chicken stock freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Drain the tomatoes (reserving liquid).

Sauté the bell pepper and 2/3 of the garlic in the olive oil over medium heat for 5 minutes. Add drained tomatoes, increase heat to medium-high and cook five minutes longer. Add sautéed vegetables, herbs, and remaining garlic to a food processor along with reserved tomato juice. Pulse several time until slightly coarse.

Return tomato mix to a sauce pan, add chicken stock, salt, and pepper and simmer for 10 minutes.

Place a round of lightly toasted coarse bread in the bottom of a bowl, ladle soup into bowl, and top with basil chiffonade.

Try this Tomato/Garlic soup with...
Cheese Quick Bread
Mortadella Sandwich (Sao Paulo)
Tuna & Chicken Salad Sandwiches

Technorati: Food | recipe | kevin d weeks | seriously good | soup | tomatoes