Well, it’s not exactly Turtle Soup which is the one prescribed by Lewis Carroll the Mock Turtle in Alice in Wonderland.
Beautiful Soup, so rich and green,
Waiting in a hot tureen!
Who for such dainties would not stoop?
Soup of the evening, beautiful Soup!
Soup of the evening, beautiful Soup!
My particular soup is “rich and red,” full of fresh tomatoes and a generous complement of herbs and spices.
The original recipe, which I’ve hacked about a bit, comes from The Pillsbury Cookbook, 1995 edition, which has been one of my “go to” cookbooks for decades now. The original came in a five-ring binder, with a tendency for the pages to pull out and fall out after much use (many of them did, and had), so I was delighted to find a newer, fully bound, edition, about fifteen years ago. When I got it home, I threw my much-loved old volume in the trash, and went immediately to find the recipe for one of my standards, Sunburst Lemon Bars (a treat for which I always received kudos and accolades at work parties).
It wasn’t there!
I immediately fished the old cookbook out of the trash. (You can probably tell, although it’s not actually as bad as it looks. All my “favorite” and much-loved cookbooks look a bit reprehensible after a few years), and donated the new one to The Goodwill. Still, I apologize to all the ladies who might have been looking for the lemon bars recipe ever since.
This is my version of the Tomato Soup recipe, which appears on page 352 of my cookbook, and is my first experiment with my newest plug-in, one for recipes:
"Soup of the evening, beautiful (Tomato) Soup!"
A full-bodied tomato soup bursting with fresh flavor. Freezes well.
Ingredients
- 10 cups (1750g) Fresh Tomatoes
- 1 cup chopped onion
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1 tablespoon basil leaves (substitute 3 tablespoons chopped fresh basil if you like)
- 1 1/2 teaspoons dried thyme leaves (substitute 1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves if you like)
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 2 6-oz cans tomato paste (if the tomatoes you are using are paste tomatoes, you could eliminate this, or reduce to just one can)
- 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 3 tablespoons butter or olive oil
- 3 tablespoons flour
- 6 cups milk (for a richer soup, substitute some half-and-half, or some cream, for some of the milk)
Instructions
- In saucepan, mix tomatoes, onion, sugar, salt, basil, thyme, pepper, and tomato paste (if using).
- Cover and simmer about 15 minutes on medium-low heat. (Watch for sticking!)
- Use a stick blender to puree thoroughly. (Watch for splashes). You can also grind the sauce through a food mill, if you prefer a perfectly smooth soup, and ditch the pulp. I don't mind the pulp or the seeds, so I just use the stick blender.
- In a large saucepan, melt butter, or heat olive oil. Add flour and stir for a minute or two. Whisk in the milk until smooth, and cook a minute or two until slightly thickened, stirring constantly.
- Stir in the tomato puree. Heat. Do not boil.
Notes
As mentioned above, you can add fresh herbs in place of the dried. Simply increase the quanities two or three fold. (My experience has been that it's hard to add too much fresh basil, but that it's perfectly possible to add too much fresh thyme, so watch out!)
Don't omit the baking soda. It neutralizes the acid in the tomatoes, and also helps control curdling when you add the milk.
