If you haven’t already noticed this yet, I have a really huge thing for all things tomato-related, especially tomato sauce. I like tomato sauce so much that I use about two cups of sauce for half a cup of pasta. Really, I would much rather eat my tomato sauce as a soup, scooping it up with a bit of crusty baguette.
So I did.
Back when the summer tomatoes were still good, I bought a bunch and roasted them with a quartered onion and a few cloves of garlic, their papery skins still on. When everything was nice and caramelized, I dumped it in a pot, squeezing every last bit of that soft, sweet garlic out of the skin, and puréed it with my immersion blender.
I bought a baguette, dumped my tomato sauce in a bowl, and called it soup.
It was one of the best decisions I ever made.
Roasted Tomato “Soup”
Note: If you’re not as into pure tomato sauce as I am, this “soup” also makes an excellent sauce for your favorite pasta.
5-6 tomatoes on the vine
1 onion, peeled and quartered
2 cloves garlic, skin left on
1 tbsp. olive oil
2 tsp. cayenne pepper
salt and pepper
1 tsp. dried basil
Toss the tomatoes, onion, garlic, oil, cayenne pepper and about a teaspoon of salt together in a glass baking dish. Roast at 350 degrees Farenheit until the tomatoes have released their juices and the onions are caramelized, about 30-40 minutes.
Remove the tomato mixture from the oven. Remove the garlic and empty the rest of the dish into a saucepan. Use water or a little bit of red wine to deglaze the pan, scraping up any bits. Squeeze the garlic cloves to allow the soft garlic to combine with the rest of the ingredients.
With an immersion blender, blend the ingredients until smooth. Add salt and pepper to taste, as well as the dried basil. Serve with crusty baguette.