It’s New Years Day 2016; the start of a new calander year for us all. Despite a very late night watching a film with my family into the ‘wee small hours’, the body clock kicked in and wouldn’t let me have a lay in, sadly, so it was time to get up, have breakfast and create my first dish of the new year then!
Having bought 3 nets of reduced tomatoes in Tesco a couple of days ago (29p/pack), as well as a pack of Romaro peppers (reduced to 39p), along with a couple of yellow peppers and garlic from my fridge, basil growing in a pot on my kitchen windowsill and some fabulous basil infused extra virgin olive oil from Pomora that I picked up at the BBC Good Food Winter show in November, I set about prepping and making a delicious soup for today’s lunch. Measurements aren’t an exact science here; it’s more about the flavour and your own personal taste guiding you through to the finished product, but to give you an idea what I threw together to make my soup, here’s what I used:
25 salad tomatoes
2 Romaro red peppers
2 Yellow peppers
4 cloves of garlic
6 Stems of fresh basil (stalks and leaves)
15ml Pomora basil extra virgin olive oil
Pinch sea salt
15ml Tomato puree
15ml Sugar
5ml Turmeric powder
Black pepper
15ml Balsamic vinegar
1. Preheat your often to 180℃.
2. Halve the tomatoes. Remove the stalks, seeds and pith from the peppers. Peel the garlic and put all of these into a large, heavy based roasting dish (my Le Creuset roasting pan is ideal for this).
3. Throw in the basil, then sprinkle with sea salt and drizzle with oil. Toss or stir together until all the vegetables are coated in the oil.
4. Roast for 30-40 minutes until the tomatoes are soft and pulpy and the peppers and garlic are cooked.
5. Remove the tomato skins into a sieve and squeeze the juices from them back into your roasting dish (no point in wasting that delicious, roasted flavour, eh?!)
6. Transfer the roasted tomatoes, peppers, garlic etc. from your roasting pan to a blender (I use a Kenwood blender jug attachment on my trusty Kenwood Major Titanium stand mixer). Add the tomato purée, sugar, turmeric and a good grinding of black pepper, then blitz until smooth.
7. Pour the soup into a saucepan, add the balsamic vinegar and heat through, tasting and adjusting your seasoning if required.
8. Serve with a splash of double cream and some lovely, crunchy croutons.
The Pomora Extra Virgin Olive Oil was a free sample I picked up at the BBC Good Food Show. It was not provided in order for me to develop or publish a recipe on behalf of Pomora.
Have a happy, tasty new year!
