Tomato Soup

INGREDIENTS:

5 large Roma tomatoes

(or 1 large can of whole roma tomatoes)

1 T oilve oil

1/4 t salt

5 cracks of black pepper

Yeild: 2 cups of soup

I'm very sad to say, but it's almost the end of tomato season. Hopefully if you had a garden you all were able to get a great harvest this year. My neighbor from down the street gave me a bunch of Roma tomatoes, you can't get much more local than that! And seeing as Fall is right around the bend I decided to make soup. You can use canned tomatoes, but why would you when you have fresh delicious ones?

Start by putting on a pot of water to boil. It makes peeling the tomato skin much easier if you blanch them first. Rinse tomatoes off with cold water and slice the tops with an "X"

Once the water comes to a boil place the tomatoes in the pot and cover. Remove from the heat and let them sit for 5 minutes.

Remove the tomatoes with tongs and place on your cutting board. The skin will be splitting open.

At this point you can start peeling the tomatoes, they basically will slip right out of the skin.

Crush the tomatoes up with your hands. Don't be afraid to get a little dirty. The more love you put into your dish the better it's going to taste.

Blend with your hand blender. If you don't have a hand blender, a regular blender will work fine.

I like to use a ladle when straining the soup, but then switch to a rubber spatula to really get the most of the tomatoes.

You should get around 2 cups of liquid.

Transfer into a pot and add oil, salt and pepper. Bring up to desired heat. Simply delicous.

Now head over to my "Meals for under $20" to see the finished meal with grilled cheese, Italian-sytle.