Mushroom, Potato, Heirloom Tomato

As summer comes to an end, there's an abundance of produce at local farms and farmers' markets and Shaun and I are lucky enough to get fresh produce every week from our CSA and Connecticut Farm Fresh Express.  I'm not a big fan of raw tomatoes and we seem to be getting dozens of them from the CSA every week (along with fresh garlic, basil, rosemary and hot peppers) so I decided to try to make a roasted tomato soup this weekend.

Tomatoes fresh from Boulder Knoll Farm.

Ingredients
3 lbs of tomatoes (assorted plum and heirloom )
Extra virgin olive oil
2 heads of garlic
Salt and Ground Pepper
6 cups chicken stock
Fresh Basil
Fresh Rosemary
Crushed Red Pepper
3 small hot peppers
Cream or shredded cheese

Garlic head in aluminum foil before sealing it up.

1. Heat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Halve tomatoes and place tomatoes skin side down in a baking pan. Pour about 3 TB of olive oil over the tomatoes and salt and pepper. Place in oven and roast for 60 minutes.

2. Cut the top of off each head of garlic.  Place each garlic head in aluminum foil.  Pour 1 TB of over each garlic head and salt and pepper.  Seal up the garlic packages and place in the oven with the tomatoes.  Garlic should roast for about 45 minutes or until soft. 

Garlic and tomatoes in the oven (yes, I need a new oven).

3. Remove tomatoes and garlic from oven.  Let cool.  Squeeze out garlic cloves.  Places garlic cloves and tomatoes into food processor.  Pulse until it forms a chunky mixture.

Tomatoes and garlic in the food processor.

4. Place tomato and garlic mixture into a stock put.  Add chicken stock, about 1/4 chopped fresh basil, 1 TC crushed red pepper, 4 springs of fresh rosemary and three hot peppers (seeds removed).  I used boxed chicken stock, but would have preferred to make my own.  Cook over low heat for 2 hours.  The longer it cooks, the more flavor develops.

All the ingredients before the slow boil.

5. Remove the soup from the stove and allow it too cool.  Strain soup in a fine colander.  Salt and pepper to taste (I like lots of salt).  Soup will be spicy (nom nom nom).  To cut the spice finish with a little cream or shredded cheese.  If you would like a thicker soup you can also incorporate a roux (my thoughts are that an almond flour / olive oil roux would work best). 

Strained soup and remnants in the strainer. 

My soup was a success.  It satisfied my post run salt craving and Shaun actually liked it.  Considering his feelings about vegetables, this was pretty big deal.