13 March, 2021
Tomato Basil Soup
Learned this from searching the internet and adjusting to my preferences. Great for a cold or a cold day.
Ingredients:
1 White Onion
1 Garlic Clove
2 cans crushed tomatoes
1 liter tomato juice
4 tablespoons sugar
basil and parsley
1 stick of butter, no salt
optional:
red wine, chicken stock
Recipe:
Dice half to a third of an onion and mince one garlic
Sweat in bottom of pot with water. Be patient and go until the onions are close to clear. This is important that they are properly sweated and not cooked/browned. I highly encourage you to youtube ‘sweating onions’ to get that translucent final product. My tip is to put in pot direct and keep adding small amounts of water till it’s translucent. You have to mince the garlic finely.
Add: Two cans of crushed tomatoes and tomato juice.
For the texture I prefer to grind crushed tomatoes in a food processor leaving smaller chunks. You want small bits, not large chunks, and not pureed. In the food processor I tap the button three or four times so it’s a little broken up. Looking for smashed look and not firm tomato chunks.
Turn on medium heat mixing often until it steams then turn down to lowest setting before boiling. DO NOT BOIL.
While getting to a simmer add 2 tablespoons of basil and a little shake of parsley. Don’t hesitate to add more of this as you go for a solid basil flavor.
Add around sugar to take away the acidity. I add one tablespoon at a time, mixing and tasting for acidity. The above exact ingredients usually stop at 3 tablespoons of sugar for my personal taste. Then mix in butter until melted.
Optional: Lots of recipes out there suggest adding liquids to enhance and add subtle flavors. They suggest adding any of the following: white wine, red wine, chicken broth, condensed chicken soup (just a glob). I have tried the wine additions and the chicken broth addition, and it does add something. Most of the time I do not add anything extra.
Let simmer for 20 minutes. You could simmer for just five minutes and serve but I do it for a little longer to get that basil flavor to integrate.
When ready to serve, stir in one to two cups of heavy cream. Give it a minute or two to warm back up before removing from stove and serving.
You can always boil longer to get it really thick. Also you can add the cream upfront and turn this into a bisque. This is right on the line between soup and bisque the way I cook it.
Before adding cream.
After adding heavy cream
