home cooking: Cream of Fresh Tomato Soup

A bowl of tomato soup and a crispy, grilled cheese sandwich is an all-time, classic, American comfort food combination. And, the best version of it involves homemade soup made from just-picked, ripe tomatoes. Comfort food that captures the best of summer seemed like a good idea for a new-mom-to-be looking to stock her freezer with meals before the baby arrives. Ilke from Ilke’s Kitchen has organized a virtual baby shower for Shelley from Franish Nonspeaker. For the shower, a group of us are posting recipe ideas for either freezer-friendly dishes that can be made in advance and stored or dishes that are quick and easy for a busy, new parent. This tomato soup is fairly quick and easy to prepare, but mostly, I thought it would be a great thing to pull from the freezer on a day when there’s no time to cook. The recipe is from Ina Garten’s Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics, and it’s also available online. Crunchy, parmesan croutons take the place of a grilled cheese sandwich here, and they are a delicious topping on the soup along with some fresh basil. Regarding the soup’s texture, it’s really up to you. Ina recommended passing it through a food mill after cooking, but I used an immersion blender. For a smoother puree, you could use a regular blender or a food processor and work in batches. Then, depending on the weather or your mood, you can decide if you’d rather serve the soup hot or cold.

To make the soup, you need four pounds of fresh tomatoes. I used a mix of varieties including big beefsteak tomatoes, smaller yellow taxi tomatoes, and a few San Marzanos from the farmers’ market. The tomatoes should be cored and coarsely chopped. The best thing about a pureed soup is that the ingredients are just quickly chopped for cooking since the shape doesn’t matter in the end. The recipe calls for red onion, but I used some locally grown sweet 1015’s instead. To begin, the onions were sauteed in a large pot with a couple of chopped carrots. When the vegetables had become tender, some garlic was added and cooked for a minute. Next, the tomatoes were added with tomato paste, stock, basil, and salt and pepper. Sugar was supposed to have been added, but I skipped it since the tomatoes were so flavorful, and I used a sweet onion. Also, rather than using the suggested chicken stock, I made a quick vegetable stock to use instead. Even water would work here, but some extra salt and maybe a little more tomato paste would be needed in that case. The soup was brought to a boil and then left to simmer for about half an hour. Just before being pureed, three quarters of a cup of cream was added to the soup. To top the soup, a baguette was cut into chunks, the pieces were tossed with olive oil and salt and pepper, and they were sprinkled with grated parmesan. The croutons were baked until golden and crunchy.

It’s actually a sign of a new chapter in my food life that I suggested serving this soup hot or cold. Until recently, I wasn’t a fan of cold tomato soup. While on vacation during the week of Memorial Day, I tried a chilled, smooth tomato soup for lunch one day and actually loved it. Just like this soup, it had some added cream for richness, but the flavor was really all about the tomatoes. And, that soup had some lemon in it that worked to point up the flavors. So, just to test this recipe for all possible uses, I’ve tasted it hot off the stove, chilled from the refrigerator with a little added lemon juice, and thawed and re-heated from the freezer. I can report that it was fantastic every which way and that having a supply in the freezer makes this comfort food meal an easy option whenever you want it.

For more quick dishes or freezer-friendly meals, check for recipes that will be posted for Shelley on these other sites throughout this week: