Good Morning to my friends and family! I am so happy to reconnect with you and do believe me when I tell you that I have missed our contact. So, we may not take up where we left off, but I am ever so pleased to share my thoughts, my joys and my activities throughout the days with you.
We are entering the "dog days" of summer and like you I am searching for ways to stay refreshed--physically, mentally and spiritually. Cooking is my "go to" when I'm antsy and need an outlet for my racing thoughts.
Today I want to share a bit of cooking with you as well as a dash of travel and a pinch of history--all of it related to the
beautiful bounty of early summer. The French, a lovely and loving bunch indeed, called the tomato the pomme d'amour, or the Love Apple, for their belief that the exotic tomato had aphrodisiac powers. Tomatoes might not be responsible for the romance in our lives, but eating a fresh juicy tomato, still warm from the sun and right off the vine does seem to spark a lust in some of us.
While visiting in Italy last year, I made a point of picking, not just some excellent tomatoes from a local market in Rome, but to also pick the brain of every Italian that would talk to me about cooking with tomatoes and good olive oil and fragrant homegrown aromatic herbs; of how cooking and eating in Italy is an hours long adventure into creative culinary and the sharing of food and wine and conversation with the folks that make our hearts smile prolongs the enjoyment of the entire process. What an education travel is!
So yesterday with all this in mind, I picked a bowl of fresh San Marzano (a variety of roma tomatoes) tomatoes off two of our vines that we planted and babied and encouraged to flourish by lavishing upon them gallons of Miracle Grow Plant Food for tomatoes. It was almost a religious experience! I felt their warm red skins as I washed the garden dirt away and placed them in a colander. And that little dark green stem, adorning them like a sun hat. Ok, you get the picture! Anyway I pulled some fresh onions and snipped some fresh basil and thyme from pots on the back porch brought them in for a good rinse and began the process of making a deeply rich and satisfying Tomato Basil Soup.
TOMATO BASIL SOUP
2-3 lbs. fresh tomatoes, roughly diced into 1" chunks (no need to peel or seed)
2-3 cloves garlic, finely minced
2 Tbsp. good olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
In a large non-reactive pan, slowly cook garlic and onions in olive oil. They are perfect when the onions become translucent and the mixture is deliciously aromatic. Add tomatoes and slowly cook until tomatoes are soft and falling apart. Stir often so all tomatoes get the heat evenly. Set aside to cool slightly and then place small batches of the mixture into a blender or food processor and blend/process until they are your desired texture/size. We like a chunkier soup so I just pulse my tomatoes to suit our taste. When you are finished with each batch return to the pan and add:
1-2 cans of tomato juice or Snappy Tom if you like it spicier
1 handful of fresh chopped basil
1 tsp. fresh thyme (optional)
1 tbsp. sugar (this takes the "bite" out of the acidic tomatoes). Don't add it if you like the acidity.
Reheat soup and now for the secret ingredient. Drum roll please! To this add
1/2 c. to 1 c. of store bought pesto.
That's my secret ingredient! I use the pesto I buy at Sam's Club, Member's Mark Fresh Picked Basil PESTO is the brand name. The added basil and the salty tang of the Parmesan cheese adds a richness to this soup that we enjoy. Of course serve with extra fresh grated Parmesan cheese.
I hope you will enjoy this too. I often serve this with a small Caesar salad, a slice of cantaloupe and a tall glass of good old Texas Sweet Tea.
This soup can be made in sufficient amount to freeze in a plastic freezer bag. It will be perfect to pull out of the freezer next fall/winter, heat and serve with a grilled cheese sandwich made with crusty bread and a mixture of cheddar and mozzarella cheeses or a nice gouda on sourdough.
I must explain that this is not a recipe I got from the cooks/chefs I met in Italy. No absolutely not. But it is my version of Tomato Basil Soup that fits our fast paced American lifestyle. Their cooking and stirring and tasting all day and waiting on neighbors to bring good wines and choosing just the right lemons from the limonaie (lemon house) to place in a colorful Murano glass bowl, and not ending the meal until after midnight is a real stretch for me. I'm all about good food and good company but even as I'm retired, I do not have all day. I need to move on to other projects and thus I have given you my version of Tomato Basil Soup on the "Texas slow." If you want Tomato Basil Soup in a New York Minute, buy Campbells Soup in the can, stir in a little milk and hit it with some McCormicks dried basil flakes and some salt and pepper to taste. Make a grilled cheese with Kraft American slices and Mrs. Baird's white bread. Come to think of it, that's not bad either!
Buono sera!
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