American Soup
TOMATO SOUP
INGREDIENTS
3 garlic cloves
1 small onion
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 bay leaf
1¾ cups chicken or vegetable broth
1 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon salt
2½ pounds tomatoes
3 tablespoons butter
2½ tablespoons flour
½ tablespoon fresh basil
SPECIAL UTENSILS
large food processor or electric blender
colander
Serves 6. Takes 40 minutes.
PREPARATION
Dice garlic and onion. Add garlic cloves, onion, and olive oil to large pot. Sauté at for 5 minutes at medium-high heat or until onion softens. Add bay leaf, broth, oregano, salt. and tomatoes. Bring to boil using medium-high heat. Stir frequently. Cover. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 20 minutes or until tomatoes begin to disintegrate. Remove bay leaf.
While tomato/broth mixture simmers, add butter to pan. Melt butter using medium heat. Add flour gradually, stirring always. Cook for 1 minute or until mixture turns brown.
Add ingredients in pot to food processor. Blend using puree setting until ingredients become tomato soup. (You might to blend in batches.) Strain soup through colander into bowl. Discard bits in colander. Gradually stir in brown flour mixture. Stir with fork or whisk until any lumps disappear.
Dice fresh basil. Garnish soup with fresh basil. Other garnishes that go well with this soup are: croutons, parsley, and Parmesan cheese.
TIDBITS
1) Writing first appeared 5,400 years ago in Mesopotamia. But the land had no tomatoes, so no tomato-soup recipes. Humans first domesticated tomatoes in South America on April 12, 4976 BCE, but the natives didn’t write, so again no tomato-soup recipes Then one glorious day in 1832 saw the first published tomato-soup recipe. Culinary historians say this is humanity’s greatest deed.
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