Fresh tomatoes are abundant in the Summer, so it’s a perfect time to make Thaddeus’ Roasted Tomato Soup in great quantities to freeze for long, cold Winters.

Recipe – Roasted Tomato Soup

This recipe makes about 2 gallons of tomato soup, and it is an incredibly rich, satisfying soup during the Winter.

Preparing this soup is equipment-intensive, so make sure you have the necessary equipment before starting this recipe…but it’s worth it…year after year, having hot, full-flavor tomato soup to enjoy over the Winter is incredibly satisfying.

The recipe can use any kind of fresh tomato from your local farmer’s stand.  Thaddeus has recently found a place that will sell us 25 pounds of heirloom tomatoes for $30…we keep some of the best tomatoes for excellent Summer eating, and use the remainder for soup.  Many farm markets will sell you “seconds”…the slightly overripe or bruised tomatoes they can’t sell…these work very well in the recipe as well.

Recipe – Makes about 2 gallons of Soup
About 20 pounds of fresh tomatoes
2 large white onions
1 head garlic (peeled)
3 Tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 Teaspoon Smoked Paprika (either sweet or hot is fine…whichever you prefer)
2 Teaspoons Seasonella (an Italian seasoned salt that useful in all cooking, but not for topical use)
Optional: Vegetable or Chicken stock if the soup is too thick

Equipment:
Large roasting (with high sides)
2.5 gallon (or larger) stock pot
Heavy-duty blender (Vitamix)
Foley Food Mill
Freezer storage containers (in a size convenient for reheating portions for you or your household)

Directions:
Drizzle olive oil on bottom of roasting pan, and layer coarsely chopped onions and garlic on bottom of pan. Cut tomatoes in quarters and put into large roasting pan on top of onions and garlic cloves until roasting pan is completely full.

Put the roasting pan in the oven at 300º Fahrenheit for about 5 hours.

In batches (never fill the blender over two-thirds full of hot tomatoes), pulverized the roasted tomatoes and onions and garlic in the blender.

Pour the pulverized/roasted tomato mixture into the Foley food mill, and mill the mixture over large stock pot (removing pulp, skin and seeds that didn’t get pulverized).

Add Seasonella and smoked paprika to resulting soup and simmer on low heat for an hour.

Enjoy some immediately and freeze the remainder for a lasting memory of the Summer’s tomato harvest!

Current Knitting

I finished the Bias Scarf and started a second one because I loved how it turned out so well.

I love this design…especially using the Superfine alpaca.  The resulting scarf is luxuriously soft and very lofty and warm.  I’ll look forward to wearing this scarf all Winter.