Again With the Tomatoes!

Have I mentioned my garden lately?

The bowls and bowls of tomatoes I periodically return to the kitchen with?

I do love fresh tomatoes, don’t you?  And honestly,  I really only eat fresh tomatoes when they’re in season – I refuse to pay good money for that out-of-season hothouse garbage that’s the only thing available the rest of the year!  So I guess that means, in a practical way, is something along the lines of “make hay while the sun shines.”

Or maybe “here today, gone tomorrow!”

So I was poking around the fridge the other day (trying to make room for some fresh market purchase, no doubt), when I suddenly remembered the bowl full of already-peeled tomatoes I had leftover from that batch of roasty  vegetable sauce.

Uh-oh.  I’d forgotten all about those. . .

And meanwhile, while I was poking around the freezer, trying to find a corner in which to wedge a bag full of peaches (don’t you love fresh peaches?) I came across the few dried tomatoes left from last year, as well as a couple of frozen roasted peppers.

So Peeps and I decided that we’d better put something tomato-heavy on the week’s dinner plan.

A couple of years back, we found this recipe for a “double tomato soup” that was quite good – and not at all complicated.  The “double” part of it was canned tomatoes PLUS sun-dried tomatoes – we had fresh tomatoes and oven-dried tomatoes – with the added bonus of a the roasted red peppers – this is perfect!

We start by sauteeing the aromatics (a thinly-sliced onion, a clove or two of garlic, and a rib of celery) in a bit of butter, along with just 1/2 cup TEASPOON of curry powder.  (Trust me on this – the curry adds just a hint of interesting flavor.

Once the veggies are tender (maybe 10-15 minutes), I added what was, basically, a bowl full of of tomatoes, diced – probably close to 5 cups, I’d guess.  Along with the tomatoes, we added a couple of roasted red peppers, a quart of chicken stock (homemade is so good!), a  bunch of chopped basil, and just a pinch of brown sugar.

Just bring that mixture to a boil, then reduce the heat to low and simmer for an hour, hour and  a half.

Chop up a half dozen or so dried tomatoes, then process the soup either in a blender (carefully! and in batches, of course) or using your handy-dandy stick blender that I know you ran out  and bought so you can make your own mayonnaise.

Just check for seasoning – a little salt, maybe, and some pepper, and there’s dinner – and another empty tomato bowl!

We did make a couple of quarts of soup, but that’s OK – it freezes nicely.  We just dumped half of it into a recycled yogurt container – the cool thing about that is that I can write on the container with Sharpie, and it doesn’t matter!

Don’t tell anyone, but I like to put stir a teeny-tiny smidge of butter in my tomato soup.  I know, it’s probably bad for me, but hey, we’re eating all these fresh tomatoes – cut me a little slack!  And I’m a Dairy State gal – my motto is “Everything’s Better With Butter.”

I wonder if I could get that on a bumper sticker?

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