Soup's On

It's fall ... one of my four favorite seasons!  I love to cook, but on busy weeknights, getting creative and daring in the kitchen requires speed too.  Last night, I made a batch of delish creamy tomato soup.  Garnished with a sprig of fresh basil from the garden, we dined on a delightful "pumpkin" soup and grilled cheese sandwiches for a cozy Thursday night.  The soup even received a (shocking) rave review from Dear Hubs. He went back for seconds and I'm sure is dining on round 3 for lunch today! 

 



Creamy Tomato Soup
Yields 4 servings

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 medium yellow onion, diced
• 1 medium carrot, peeled and diced 
• 3 cloves garlic, minced (powdered works in a pinch!)
• 1 teaspoon fresh chopped thyme
• 1 tsp red pepper flakes
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1/2 - 1 cup white wine
•  24 oz San Marzano tomatoes (these taste better than other can tomato in my opinion)
•  1/2 - 1 cup mascarpone cheese

 Directions:
In a large saucepan, heat the olive oil and saute onion and carrot until tender.  Add herbs.  When cooked throughout, add tomato paste and stir until the veggies are covered in the tomato.  It will be very thick.  You need to move fast at this point so it doesn't burn, add the white wine and cook for about a minute or until the liquid is mostly evaporated.  Follow by the can of tomato, salt and pepper.  The can tomato breaks down almost immediately.  You can use a large spoon to "chunk" up the tomato on the saucepan.   

Remove from heat and let cool slightly.  Transfer to a blender or food processor and puree until all lumps are sufficiently removed and soup is smooth.  Return to saucepan and salt and pepper to taste.  At this step, I added a bit more white wine to thin out my mixture (that's why directions say up to 1 cup).  Add the mascapone cheese and stir until smooth.  The mixture will be a thick, rich orangy red. 

When I make this soup, I go heavy on the red pepper because it gives an interesting zip to the soup.  If you are serving to kids ... you might want to go sparingly on this.

For pumpkin presentation, simply add a sprig of basil to the bowl of soup ... voila ... so festive!

Soup's on, y'all!
xoxo
~b