Roasted Tomato Soup and the Trouble You can get into with Woot

The other day I was watching Tyler Florance on Tyler's Ultimate and he was making Roasted Tomato Soup with cherry tomatoes. I immediately began to yearn for spring and a time when I would have fresh cherry tomatoes to roast for soup. Later that week I was in the Piggly Wiggly, my source of fresh local produce, and low and behold there sat Roma tomatoes from the nearby town of Slocomb, Alabama (pronounced Slow-come). I pounced and snatched up several dozen. All the way home I chortled to myself, "Roasted Tomato Soup, Roasted Tomato Soup..."

Many, many moons ago one of my culinaraly wise Aunt's told me the way to make a little sugar in a recipe taste like more is to combine more than one type of sugar - for instance instead of a cup of granulated sugar use 1/4 cup of granulated sugar, 1/4 cup of powdered sugar and 1/4 cup of light brown sugar. My Aunt told me that this principle worked with other ingredients as well; peppercorns, bell peppers and cheeses were a few of the examples she gave me. What makes this recipe so good is that it's an exercise in using this principle of combining ingredients with similar flavor profiles not a recipe of exact ingredients.

I cut the tops off of my Roma tomatoes and put them on a baking sheet. I used about a dozen tomatoes per baking sheet, enough to fit comfortably on the baking sheet without overcrowding it. To that I added a quartered yellow onion. I covered them with olive oil and then added dried herbs. I used oregano, basil and ground sage but there is no rule for this, use what you like in your tomato soup. I put the tomatoes and onion in a 400 degree oven for half an hour to roast. As they were roasting I pealed a head of garlic and a shallot. I added these to the roasting pan about half way through the roasting process.

After about half an hour I took the tomatoes out of the oven and let them cool. While the tomatoes are cooling let me tell you about my Woot trouble. For those of you who don't know, Woot is a website where they offer a one day deal. There are four Woots; Woot, Sellout Woot, Shirt Woot and Wine Woot. I make a regular habit of checking them all and have found some good deals on them. The digital camera taking the pictures that appear on this blog is a Woot purchase. One day I was checking the Woot deals and Wine Woot had a cheese pack. I resisted at first but in the end it was to much for me, I love cheese. The cheese was from Point Reyes Farmstead, CA, they actually shipped the cheese to me, in Florida, from California, I was impressed. The cheeses were a Gouda, a Feta and a Blue. The problem; I don't like Blue Cheese. What to do, what to do; it turns out there are lots of things to do with blue cheese even if you don't like it. My favorite so far is to use it in bread. My favorite bread book, The Bread Lover's Bread Machine Cookbook" by Beth Hensperger, has a recipe for Roquefort cheese and walnut bread, I had never heard of Roquefort cheese but I had a suspicion that it was a blue so I looked it up. According to the Web, Roquefort is a blue cheese from Roquefort, France the Web claims that Roquefort cheese was a favorite of Charlemagne. Given that, it's a wonder it can't be found in the dairy section of my local Piggly Wiggle. NOT. I substituted the Point Reyes Blue and found that it makes a lovely moist chewy bread. I also use it in my tomato soup as a cream substitute. The Point Reyes Blue is a very creamy, earthy cheese without the sharp tang associated with Cheddar or Cream cheese. If you aren't familiar with a blue that fits this profile stick to cream or if you like a little extra sharpness to your tomato soup use cream cheese.

Once the tomatoes and onions were cool I put everything in the pan into the blender including the oil, the roasted herbs and the little charred bits. To this I added about 2 ounces of blue cheese, two anchovy fillets, a teaspoon of dried oregano and basil, one can of diced tomatoes, one quarter of an onion, two teaspoons of fresh oregano and basil and a leaf of fresh sage. Combining the fresh or raw ingredients with the roasted ingredients gives the tomato soup more depth of flavor. I then blended all this together until it was a smooth puree.

I put the tomato puree into a sauce pot and added a little milk. I like my tomato soup thick, if you like yours thinner add more milk or water until the soup is the consistency you prefer. I brought the tomato soup up to a serving temperature and plated. I ate my soup with an open face sandwich of melted mozzarella cheese, avocado and crab meat on blue cheese bread.

For those of you who like an ingredients list; this makes about 6 cups.

• 1 dozen roasted Roma tomatoes
• 1 roasted head of garlic
• 1 roasted shallot
• 1 onion quartered and roasted
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano roasted
• 1 teaspoon dried basil roasted
• 2 tablespoons olive oil (to roast ingredients above with)
• 1 can of diced tomatoes
• 1/4 of a yellow onion
• 2 anchovy fillets
• 2 oz creamy blue cheese
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 2 teaspoons fresh oregano
• 2 teaspoons fresh basil
• 1 sage leaf

Combine ingredients above olive oil on a baking sheet, roast in a 400 degree oven for 30 min. Once roasted ingredients have cooled combine with the rest of the ingredient list in a blender. Blend until smooth then transfer to a sauce pot and heat on the stove until it reaches serving temperature.