Roasted Red Pepper and Tomato Soup

The auspicious beginnings to my cooking career began as a New Year's Eve feast with a dozen good friends and a few visitors from abroad.  Everyone chipped in a bit of cash and we had the most fantastic feast, with wines paired by my friend Jean-Michel Gauthier and with Tristan Brand capturing the event for posterity, on camera, as is his wont.  The first course that night is one that I've made often since.  It was a deliciously fresh soup of roasted red pepper and tomato.  Best off, it's fast to make.

Roasted Red Pepper and Tomato; served with a homemade organic goat yogurt with fine herbs and cream
Photo: Tristan Brand

Ingredients


4 large red peppers
8 cups chopped Roma tomatoes
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion
3 cloves of garlic
salt to taste


The Red Peppers 

Crank your oven to 375F and put the red peppers in a pan. When the sides are blackened, let them cool on the counter or in a closed container.  The closed container works best, since the steam will help with your later removal of the skin.  When they are cool, remove the skin, stem, and seeds.  Puree them in a blender with the olive oil and set aside.

The Tomatoes

While your peppers are roasting, core and chop your tomatoes.  Toss them in a pan on a medium heat with the onion, butter, and garlic.  When the onion is tender, remove it and the garlic from the tomatoes and toss them all.  So your tomatoes are soft and now you're ready to get on with things.  You'll need to puree the tomatoes.  I prefer to run them through a food mill, so that I can remove the seeds and skins.

If you do not have a food mill and you want a beautiful soup, then you will need to process the tomatoes before cooking them: boil water, dunk the tomatoes in the water for 30 seconds and then remove the skins.  Quarter the tomatoes and remove the seeds.

If you do not want a beautiful soup then just run them through a food processor or blender.  You can achieve some redemption by then straining them through a sieve.  Don't worry though, either way it will still taste great.

The Finale


Mix the two purees together and season with salt.


The Alternate Endings

Add 1 tsp of pomegranate molasses to the tomatoes as they cook, for a sweeter and fruitier finish.  If you do so, add the juice of one lemon at the very end to take the edge off the sweetness.  A soup prepared in this manner should sit overnight to allow the flavours to fully blend.  This variation might enjoy a hint of cumin as a finisher.

The original finish was with a homemade organic goat yogurt, both plain and flavoured with herbs.  Try not to hit it with heavy herbs like sage, you already know how well basil goes with tomato, right?

If you only swirl the two soups together in the bowl itself, you will achieve a lovely swirl of the two shades of red.