Italian Cooking Spree: We made Chunky Tomato Soup

As part of the Italian Cooking Spree, we made Chunky Tomato Soup. Now, I've been making the tomato cream soup for a long time, and I should probably try something else. RJ says that I need to branch out because I keep going back to Tomato Soup. :P

However, for now, I'm writing about it again, because I really liked this version better with the chunky bits! We thought we had a blender already, but turns out we don't. In the end, it turned out better than expected because the chunkiness made it rich.

The inspiration for this particular recipe comes from Laura Vitale. You can find her recipe and video in the link here: http://www.laurainthekitchen.com/all/episode.php?episodenumber=454

What you'll find below is our version... developed because we adapted to what's available (in Cherie's house and in the supermarket we went to).

The chunky tomato soup up close, with the addition of fresh spring onions from the garden the day after

Again, credits to Tine for the photos of the cooking process. :) Thank God for your camera!


Ingredients:

• 3 Tbsp of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 1 Small Onion, chopped
• 2 Cloves of Garlic, minced
• 2 lbs of Ripe Tomatoes
• 1 32 oz Can of Canned Tomatoes (whether whole or diced, it's fine)
• 1 1/4 cups of Chicken Stock (we used 2 cups of water plus 1 chicken bouillon cube)
• 1/2 cup of Heavy Cream
• 1 Tbsp of Balsamic Vinegar
• 1/4 cup of Fresh Basil Leaves (we didn't have it that day, but I added it on the leftovers)
• Salt and Pepper, to taste
• Some dried herbs and chilli flakes for seasoning in small quantities

How-to:

1) Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Chop the onions. Do all the needed prep work.

Adrin, here, is good at chopping the garlic and onions

2) Slice the tomatoes in half and put them on the baking sheet or pan. Pour the olive oil, salt, and pepper all over them and toss it all together so each one gets coated with the fair share. Make sure they arrange in one layer so they roast evenly (Lesson Learned). Roast them for about 25 minutes. (Laura Vitale added the balsamic vinegar here, but we didn't know we had it until later.)

3) In the large pot, sautee the chopped onions in the olive oil until they get a golden brown color, add the garlic and cook for 1 more minute.

4) We added the bouillon cubes and the water and put the heat at medium-high. Allow the mixture to come to a boil to make sure the cube is fully dissolved. Add the canned tomatoes and simmer at medium heat.

5) We took out the tomatoes and chopped them into smaller bits and dunked it in the soup. (At this point, we realized we didn't have a blender! Oh no...) So this is where the tomato-crushing efforts came in. See the photo below on how we did it. This is where I also added the balsamic vinegar.

We sifted off a lot of the chunks and forced it through the strainer. For the remainder, we continued to crush it and chop it up some more (pinanggigilan-chopping). and then forced it through the strainer again.

6) After finishing with the tomato-crushing efforts, let the soup simmer for around 15 minutes. We added a small handful of dried rosemary (feedback was not to add because it's hard to chew and swallow) and some dried chilli flakes. In the end before serving it, add the 1/2 cup of heavy cream and mix it together. Unfortunately, ours didn't dissolve all that well without the blender (i heard you had to "temper" it)... but it still tasted great!

So here's what we ended up with... Chunky tomatoey goodness! :)

Yum :)