Comfort and Warmth

Yesterday was a cold and rainy day here in the city and all I wanted was a nice bowl of soup when I got home from work. Actually what I wanted was to call out sick from work and stay home and watch movies all day, but that would be wrong of me to do. So instead I just settled for some yummy soup.

After taking a trip to the farmers market earlier in the week I got a bag of the last remaining summer tomatoes. I knew I wanted to make tomato soup, but I wanted it to be different then just my old recipe. After scouring online, I saw a recipe on one of my favorite food blogger's, Smitten Kitchen.

A bowl of roasted tomato soup with cheesy toasted bread was the perfect ending to a long, wet, cold day.

Roasted Tomato Soup:

3 pounds plum tomatoes, halved lengthwise

2 tablespoons olive oil
2 unpeeled garlic cloves
1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh rosemary leaves

1/4 teaspoon (or more to taste) dried crushed red pepper

4 cups of vegetable stock

Preheat oven to 400°F. Wrap garlic cloves in a tight foil packet. Place tomatoes, cut side up, on large baking sheet. Sprinkle generously with salt and pepper. Drizzle tomatoes with olive oil. Add foil packet of garlic to tray. Roast until tomatoes are brown and tender (garlic will be very tender), about 1 hour. Cool slightly.

Unwrap garlic packet and peel cloves. Transfer cloves, tomatoes and any accumulated juices to a blender or food processor and pulse machine on and off until tomatoes are a chunky puree. Transfer tomatoes to medium pot and add thyme, crushed red pepper and stock and bring to a boil Reduce heat to a simmer and cook, uncovered, for 25 minutes. Remove from heat and adjust seasonings to taste.