Tomato Heaven

We are almost done with the "roasting" portion of this book and this could not come at a more perfect time. It has been cold here in Arizona. OK, so cold by Arizona standards... Sorry Alaska folks. Soup is something I have learned to love over the last couple of years. Very hardy and perfect for all of those leftovers in the fridge. Chicken stalk, carrots, and that last piece of celery you just can not make another ants on a log with. Soup is the perfect vessel to get rid of all that stuff. And in this case tomatoes. I have attempted to grow tomatoes in my back yard and have failed multiple times. I was successful once with cherry tomatoes but could you imagine how many tomatoes it would take to make a soup. OK so on to the post. Tomato soup... Not a fan. I really have only had the kind in the can so I guess I have not had that much experience anyways. First step in this soup is tomatoes. I halved 20 Roma tomatoes and put them on a cookie sheet.

Drizzled with extra virgin olive oil, salt, sugar, black pepper and Italian seasoning. It called for fresh herbs but by the time I finally made the recipe the herbs did not look good in my fridge. :)
Into the oven at about 9pm at night at 170 degrees for 10 hours. GOOD NIGHT!!!! The next morning was promised (by the recipe) to smell like Provence. It did not. :( But once I pulled the tomatoes out of the oven, they did smell good.
These tomatoes can be used for salads, soups, risottos, pizza or spaghetti sauce. It can even be put into the refrigerator for a month and in the freezer for 6 months. The next recipe was roasted tomato soup so I opted for that application.

I started with my favorite stock pot with oil, red bell pepper, onions, garlic and salt over medium heat.
These were saute until soft and tender which took about 15-20 minutes.
After the "aromatics" were soft, I added the tomatoes, chicken broth and a little bit of balsamic vinegar and brought to a boil. Turned the heat down to a simmer and let it simmer for 20 minutes. During the simmering process every couple of minutes I would use a wooden spoon to break up the tomatoes even more. This 20 minute simmer ended up being 1 hour because I was outside watching my 4 year old ride his bike which always ends up being longer than anticipated.
This is the end result after simmering for 1 hours. By the way, it smelled really good. I could especially smell the balsamic vinegar which was surprising because I only put in 2 tablespoons.
I removed the soup from the heat and placed the soup in a bowl ready to strain.
There are multiple ways to make a chunking soup smooth including a blender or a stick blender but I choose a food mill. Do you know what it is? It's a hand crank device that you turn the soup through a grader (kind of like a box grader) and it makes the soup a nice puree. I had originally got this to make baby food years ago but ended up using a blender at that point. The reason I choose the food mill here is that it removes the skin of the tomatoes well where the others do not.
After 5-7 minutes of turning, I had an AWESOME tomato soup. It was so flavorful and smooth. No chunks which I enjoyed. It did not taste like the tomato can soup I had had in the past. I was planning on adding cheese or sour cream if it wasn't good but it didn't even need it. The funny part was that it totally tasted like it had some cream base but it didn't, making it a health soup as well. Of course I served with a traditional grilled cheese sandwich which we used to dip the soup with. Even Reagan and Ryan ate the soup with the sandwich. Overall it was a hit.
Next spring I will attempt to grow tomatoes in my back yard so I can make this again and again with my bountiful supply of tomatoes. (I am trying to will a successful crop) If you have any suggestion on how to make tomatoes grow let me know. The last application for roasting is another meatloaf. (Can you hear the groan) See you soon.