Roasted
Tomato Soup with Purée of Basil and Olive Croûtons
When you oven roast tomatoes something
magical happens, the flavour is concentrated and the
toasted edges also give a lovely flavour, making this the best tomato soup
recipe ever.
Serves : 6
Ingredients:
3lb / 1.35kg Ripe, Red, Firm Tomatoes
About 1oz / 25g Fresh Basil
3 Fat Cloves Garlic,
unpeeled
4 tbsp Extra Virgin
Olive Oil, plus extra for dipping
1 Large Potato,
about 6oz / 175g
2 Rounded tsp Tomato Purée
1 Dessertspoon Balsamic
Vinegar
Salt and Freshly
Milled Black Pepper
FOR THE
CROÛTONS:
3oz / 75g
Ciabatta, crusts removed, cut into small dice
1 tbsp Extra Virgin
Olive Oil
1 Level tbsp Black Olive Paste
Instructions:
- Pre-heat
the oven to Gas Mark 5 / 375°F / 190°C.
- First
of all, skin the tomatoes
by pouring boiling water on them, leave for 1 minute exactly before
slipping the skins off.
- Now,
slice each tomato
in half and arrange the halves on the baking tray, cut side uppermost.
- Place
the garlic
cloves on the tray as well, leaving their skins on.
- Then
season everything with salt
and pepper and
sprinkle a few droplets of olive oil on
each tomato
half and some on the garlic
– about 2 tablespoons in all.
- Then
finally top each one with a piece of basil leaf (dipping
the leaf in oil
first to give it a good coating).
- Now
pop the whole lot into the oven and roast for 1 hour or until the edges of
the tomatoes
are slightly blackened.
- While
the tomatoes
are roasting, prepare the croûtons by placing
the bread cubes in a bowl, with the oil and the
olive paste, then toss them around to get a good
coating of both.
- About
20 minutes before the end of the roasting time, peel and chop the potato, place it
in a saucepan with some salt and 1 pint /
570ml of boiling water.
- Add
the tomato purée
then simmer for about 20 minutes.
- When
the tomatoes
are ready, remove them from the oven, but leave it switched on.
- Arrange
the croûtons on a small baking tray and put them
in the oven to bake for about 8 minutes using a timer.
- Now
scrape the tomatoes
and all their juices into a food processor, rescue the garlic cloves from
the tray, and then simply squeeze the pulp to join the tomatoes and
discard the skins.
- Then
add the contents of the potato saucepan
and whiz everything to a thick purée, not too smooth. If you want to, you
can sieve the pips out, but I prefer to leave them in because I prefer
that texture.
- The
soup is now ready for reheating – very gently.
- Just
before serving the soup make the basil purée. Strip the leaves into a
mortar, sprinkle them with half a teaspoon of salt, then bash the
leaves down with the pestle. It takes a minute or two for the leaves to
become a purée.
- Now
add the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil and
the balsamic
vinegar and stir well.
- To
serve the soup, pour it into warm serving bowls and drizzle
the basil purée on the surface, then finally sprinkle on the croûtons and serve with some ciabatta
bread warmed through in the oven.
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