Tomato Soup & Grilled Cheese
For Valentines day, we planned to have our date night on the Saturday the 15, so the 14th was free for chilling and staying in. I wanted to make it special since it was sort of my contribution to Valentines day, so I decided to make his comfort food —- Tomato soup and grilled cheese from scratch.
I tried to prep it the day before and had a MASSIVE FAIL, I burnt the living hell out of the bottom and ruined the entire batch, the whole thing was unbearably smoky. I tried to eat it but had to give it up and dump the batch. Feeling defeated, I gave up for the night and tried again the next day before he arrived.
Next time… I honestly wouldn’t bother making the soup from scratch because even after blending it was still sort of chunky, and still sort of acidic, I don’t know how people cut that.
But if I do, I used the recipe: https://natashaskitchen.com/tomato-soup-recipe/
Tomato Soup
Ingredients
Servings: 8 people (1 cup servings)
4 Tbsp unsalted butter
2 yellow onions, (3 cups finely chopped)
3 garlic cloves, (1 Tbsp minced)
56 oz crushed tomatoes, (two, 28-oz cans) with their juice, preferably San Marzano
2 cups chicken stock (I used bullion concentrate to make the stock)
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil, plus more to serve (I used some pesto I needed to eat up instead)
1 Tbsp sugar, or added to taste
1/2 tsp black pepper, or to taste
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream, or to taste to combat acidity
1/3 cup parmesan cheese, freshly grated, plus more to serve
Instructions
Heat a nonreactive pot or enameled dutch oven over medium heat. Add butter then add chopped onions. Sauté 10-12 minutes, stirring occasionally, until softened and golden. Add minced garlic and sauté 1 minute until fragrant.
Add crushed tomatoes with their juice, chicken stock, chopped basil, sugar (or add sugar to taste), and black pepper. Stir together and bring to a boil then reduce heat, partially cover with lid and simmer for 10 minutes.
You can leave your soup with a chunky consistency, but if you like a blended/creamy soup, use an immersion blender to blend the soup in the pot to desired consistency or transfer to a blender in batches and blend until smooth (being careful not to over-fill the blender with hot liquid and pulse a few times initially to get it started), then return blended soup to the pot over medium heat.
Add 1/2 cup heavy cream, 1/3 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese and return to a simmer. Season to taste with salt and pepper if needed and turn off the heat.*
Ladle into warm bowls and top with more parmesan and chopped fresh basil.
For the grilled cheese:
Use sliced sourdough, it’s his fav, and the best!
Put generous amounts of butter in the pan and heat on medium
Slather the outside of the bread with mayo
Use cheddar mixed with something more fancy like some smoked gouda (shred it)
Once it’s in the pan, cover with some tinfoil so the cheese melts