we are FLU

a soup worth getting sick for...

I spent the past week and weekend sick with a flu. This will be my third flu in the past few months. Upon reporting this to my good friend Sara, I was greeted with convulsive laughter.
Ha. Ha.
Now that that's out of my system, here's what I did about it -- I ate really comfortable food.

How do I feel? Physically sick. But spiritually? Fantastic. Splendid. Marvelous.

I need to do this more often.

Over the past few days I mooched a magnificent nostalgic meal off my father -- his spaghetti and meatballs (I don't eat red meat so he made them with ground turkey). Simply wonderful.


I am on the mend but still feeling homey about things, so I decided to make one of my favorite things tonight, cream of tomato soup.


In my time, I've had  many lackluster soups. I've even made a few. This time I wanted to make a soup I was proud of, and so I pulled out all the stops, all the bells and whistles. It was rich, creamy and full of soothing subtle flavors. 

I often find tomato soups too thin and too acidic, so I made this one with cauliflower to balance out the flavor and texture. It worked beautifully.

I might just have to walk home with wet hair and do it all over again... :)

MIGHTY TOMATO SOUP

6 Organic roma tomatoes
small handful grape tomatoes
1 cup cauliflower florets
2 baby cipollini onions
4 cloves garlic
6 tbsp olive oil
1/4 red onion chopped
1/3 cup sparkling white wine 
5 leaves fresh basil
1/4 lemon, juice of
1 cup organic 1% milk
2 tbsp sour cream
1/3 cup 10% cream
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup grated parmigiano reggiano cheese

1/3 cup grated pecorino romano cheese

sea salt

freshly cracked pepper

What I did:

So I started by preheating my oven to 450. I tossed 5 of the tomatoes, the cauliflower, the cipollines and 3 cloves of garlic onto a baking tray lined with tin foil. I drizzled on a little olive oil, salt and pepper and roasted them for about 12 minutes till they were starting burst and golden.

Next I took a heavy saucepan and added about a tbsp of olive oil. I had the temperature on medium high. I added the chopped red onion and a chopped clove of garlic and sweated them for a few minutes. I added a little salt and then deglazed the pan with about half the wine. After this I dumped in the roasted veg and their drippings from the tinfoil, broke up the pieces with my mixing spoon and let them simmer a little. After they started to form a thin sauce I added about half the milk and another tbsp of olive oil. I let the mixture simmer a bit, stirring often.

Next I grabbed my hand blender and pureed the soup. After this I tasted it and added the remaining ingredients bit by bit, stirring and pureeing them into the mix (including the remaining raw tomatoes), letting them simmer a bit after each addition.

When I was pleased by the flavor I gave it a rest, served it up.

I topped my serving with some large shavings of pecorino romano, some fine shavings of parmigiano, some cracked black pepper, some chopped fresh chives and a little drizzle of extra virgin olive oil. 

THE NIBBLER