Wednesday, March 11, 2009

A sad story...


Ok... so I saw this amazing looking soup on the Noble Pig website. It was just calling to me, so I decided I would make a batch. I got all the way through the recipe and was just adding the cream at the end. (This is about an hour into the whole process.) After I added the cream- I noticed a funny smell... I tasted it and sure enough, the cream was sour and the whole batch of soup was ruined. I was pretty sad about. It sat on my counter for a whole day before I had the heart to throw it out. The recipe still looks delicious and maybe I'll recover sometime and make a second attempt... but until then...

Moral of the story: Always check your cream before putting it in... even if it is well within the due date. :(

Cream of Roasted Tomato Soup with Parsley Croûtons
Adapted from Tomatoes, A Country Garden Cookbook

2 pounds large ripe tomatoes
Olive oil to coat tomatoes
8 shallots
1 small carrot
1 small fennel bulb
3 Tablespoons unsalted butter
2 cups chicken or vegetable stock
6 sprigs fresh tarragon
6 sprigs fresh parsley
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 cup heavy cream

Parsley Croûtons:
12 thin slices baguette
Olive oil to generously coat both sides of each piece of baguette
3 cloves garlic, cut in half
Teleme cheese (or Parmesan)
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Cut tomatoes in half, seed them and coat with olive oil. Place tomatoes in a shallow baking dish and bake for 30 minutes, turning every 10 minutes, until the skins begin to darken and blister.

Remove from the oven and let cool. Remove the skins and reserve pulp and all the juices.

Coarsely chop shallots, carrot and fennel bulb. Melt butter in a heavy pot over medium heat. Sauté the vegetables until they are very soft.

Add chicken stock and sprigs of both fresh parsley and fresh tarragon. Simmer over low heat for 30 minutes.

While this is cooking make the croûtons.

Lower the oven temperature to 400 degrees. Slice the bread into 12 thin slices, brushing each side generously with olive oil and place on a baking sheet. Rub one side of the bread with garlic and place a dollop of Teleme cheese or a sprinkle of Parmesan on top. Sprinkle with parsley and bake until brown.

Once the soup is done simmering, remove the herb sprigs and add the reserved tomato pulp and tomato juices. Puree the soup in several batches in a blender. I tried using an immersion blender but it was unable to get the soup to the proper consistency.

Return soup to the pan and stir in heavy cream, heating until warm. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Keep warm over low heat until ready to serve.

Ladle soup into warm bowls and float parsley croûtons on top of each bowl.
Posted by Picasa

1 comment:

jess and seth said...

Lydia, there is nothing worse. Did I tell you about when that happened to me? I made a ham chowder (maybe this is why I haven't made it for a while) and used milk I didn't know was sour. It started to curdle and smelled HORRIBLE. But I couldn't bring myself to throw it away so (get this) I put it in the collander and rinsed off all the milk and started over with a new batch of milk, but the same ham, potatoes, corn, etc. Oh yes, it was still nasty. The kids wouldn't touch it, and Seth choked down half a bowl. It definitely wasn't worth saving, so hard as it was to throw it out, at least you did the right thing! :)