Saturday, September 19, 2009

Tomato Soup with Garlic Rosemary Parmesan Croutons

One of my favorite meals of the week was my tomato soup. I used homegrown tomatoes and basil. I also made a garlic, rosemary butter (with some rosemary from my overgrowing rosemary plant) to make Parmesan croutons to accompany the soup. Tomato season is almost over, so this was almost like a farewell to my beloved tomatoes...

Here is a picture of the tomatoes and basil after I picked them.

I started by sauteing some onions and garlic in a bit of olive oil.

Then I added the tomatoes.

I let the tomatoes cook for about ten minutes before I added the basil as well as one cup of vegetable broth. I also added some salt and pepper.

I continued to simmer the tomatoes for another fifteen minutes and then used my immersion blender to puree everything. After the soup was pureed, I cooked it for an additional 10 minutes.

Here is a picture of the finished soup.

While the soup was cooking, I made some rosemary garlic butter for the croutons. I used about a third of a stick of butter, two large cloves of garlic, finely chopped, and the needles on one sprig of rosemary, also finely chopped. There is still some leftover garlic rosemary butter in my fridge...

To make the croutons, I cut some leftover walnut baguette into thin slices. I usually buy a walnut baguette from my favorite baker at the Farmers' Market every other week and freeze half as soon as I get home. The baguette is kind of pricey, and freezing half assures we get to enjoy some the next week as well.

I spread a bit of the garlic rosemary butter on each slice of bread. I then baked the bread slices in a 450 degree oven for about 7 minutes, at which time I topped them with some Parmesan cheese and baked them for a few more minutes.

Finally, here is a picture of my bowl of soup with some croutons. It was very good.

I neither peel nor seed the tomatoes to make this soup. The soup is therefore kind of thick. I love it that way. However, if you prefer a thinner soup, you can blanch the tomatoes (put the tomatoes in a pot of boiling water for about one minute and then transfer them to a bowl of ice water). You can then skin them easily and also take out the seeds.

Questions: What's your favorite soup? When was the last time you had it?

Be well,
Andrea