Sunday, October 4, 2009

Dragon Blood Soup



I received a load of heirloom tomatoes from my friend Elizabeth the other day. Red and yellow, big and small. I've been eating them on my english muffin in the morning with yarlsburg cheese. MY kids had a sleepover at her house last night with her kids and this morning they picked all the ripe tomatoes on her plants. Then they took the tomatoes to our little mountain store, Casalegno's and sold them to the proprietress, Gina, and each kid made a little mad money. I hit up Casalegno's this afternoon and bought a bunch of the tomatoes to supplement the big pot of tomato soup I made today. We call it Dragon's Blood Soup because that is what they call it at Excaliber in Vegas!

I started with about 10-12 tomatoes of varying sizes (about 5 pounds) and about 1/2 pint assorted cherry tomatoes. Rinse, core and cut tomatoes in half. Keep Cherries whole. Place on a rimmed sheet pan. Season with salt and pepper. Roast in a 375 degree oven about 45 minutes to concentrate the flavors. While the tomatoes are roasting, Heat about 2 tablespoons olive oil in a soup pot, add 1 chopped onion and 3-4 cloves chopped garlic. Saute until soft. When tomatoes are done roasting, add to pot. Add 3-4 cups water or stock. Bring to a boil and simmer about 25 minutes covered. Towards end add a few leaves of basil. Puree. If you like it a little creamier you can 1/2 cup cream at the end. It also adds extra fat. You can also choose to serve it with a dollop of creme fraiche or yogurt and let your eaters decide if they want the extra creaminess (fat).

I served the soup with croutons I made from days-old rosemary focaccia bread cut in small cubes and fried in olive oil.

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