Intense Tomato Soup, Cannellini Dip

Tonight, sadly, only two of our three recipes were successful. I was all excited to post a detailed set of pictures of wonderful five-minutes-a-day bread as it metamorphs from mere flour and water to delicious boule... but then I added a half cup too much water accidentally and ended up possibly ruining the whole batch :( We threw a pile of the wet dough on a baking stone and it turned into a lump that, while tasty enough, was too sad-looking to post. Anyway, we added some flour so hopefully it will rise enough overnight to be delicious tomorrow.

The good news is that this powerful soup totally made up for the lack of bread. The original recipe promises that it is more intense than any other tomato soup you will try, and I have to agree. It gets its kick from blackened red pepper, cayenne, a mix of three forms of tomato (canned, fresh, and concentrate), using the whole fresh tomato including skins and juices, and sloooow cooking. It was intensely tomato flavored without being too sour, sweet, peppery, and nice and warming from the cayenne. It was so smooth that adding the light cream really isn't a necessary step (not that I reccomend leaving it out). My only qualification is that this is exclusively a summer soup, as it depends on high-quality fresh tomatoes.


Intense Tomato Soup
Adapted from Scrumptious Blog; Serves 4

2 tbsp olive oil
1 large red pepper, roughly chopped
2 - 3 lb very ripe, sweet tomatoes, roughly chopped, juices retained
14-oz can diced or crushed tomatoes
1 tbsp concentrated tomato paste
2 fat cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 tsp baking soda
A dash taasco or a pinch cayenne
1 tsp sugar
1 cup vegetable stock
salt and (lots of) pepper to taste
1/4 cup light cream

Get your soup pot very hot, add some olive oil, and when it's hot toss in the chopped red pepper. It will make scary hissing noises, but don't take it off the heat. Let the pepper just start to blacken, then add all of the forms of tomato, the garlic, and the soda (which is there to cut down on the acidity). turn down the heat to a simmer and cook everything for as long as you can, at least a half hour. During the process you can add cayenne, salt, and pepper, and adjust the flavor by adding different types of tomato. Mash up the tomato chunks a little as you go too. Once you can't wait any longer, add the sugar and vegetable stock and cook another 10 minutes. Stir in the cream slowly so it doesn't curdle. Enjoy!



Cannellini Dip

This was mostly an excuse to use up the cannellini beans I accidentally bought instead of chickpeas, but it turned out pretty nice. I did it all to taste - just puree a 14 oz can of cannellini, garlic, a lot of olive oil, lemon juice, some salt and pepper, and some oregano.

Since we didn't have bread, I sent Gabe out to get crackers. This is what he came back with. Gabe remarks, "heh heh."

TOMORROW: Fresh salsa, Pesto