Roasted Tomato Soup with Parmesan Crisps

Ingredients:

If you are making the soup to freeze, omit the cream when you make it and just add it when you defrost and warm up the soup.

For the Soup:

• 4 pounds Roma tomatoes, cut in half lengthwise (or any tomato you want to use)

• 5 garlic cloves, unpeeled

• 4 tablespoons olive oil

• 1 teaspoon kosher or sea salt

• freshly ground black pepper

• 1 medium onion, chopped

• 1 teaspoon dried oregano

• 2 teaspoons sugar

• 1 tablespoon butter

• 3 cups chicken stock

• 1/2 cup heavy cream*

For the Parmesan Crisps:

• 1 cup grated parmigiano reggiano cheese, grated on large holes of box grater

• ground black pepper

Instructions:

For the Soup:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Arrange tomatoes, cut sides up, on a large baking sheet lined with heavy duty aluminum foil (makes for easier clean up). Add unpeeled garlic to tomatoes. Drizzle 3 tablespoons of the olive oil all over the tomatoes and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast tomatoes for 1 hour, let tomatoes cool for a little while and then peel garlic

3. Cook onion, oregano and sugar in 1 tablespoon of olive oil and the butter in a very heavy pot over medium heat, until onion is soft, about 5 minutes. Add tomatoes, garlic and stock and simmer, covered, for 20 minutes.

4. Place an immersion blender into the pot and puree the soup. If you do not have an immersion blender (promise yourself to go buy one), pour the soup into a regular blender and puree. You may have to do this in batches, if you use a regular blender. Don’t skip this step of pureeing the soup first – the soup will have a richer flavor, if some of the seeds and skins get pureed. Force pureed soup through a strainer (or use a food mill – it’s easier) to remove remaining skins and seeds.  (if you absolutely just don’t want to strain the soup, don’t worry – you can skip this step, if you don’t mind the seeds.  You will just have a chunkier soup. I prefer my soup strained.)   Pour strained soup into a small clean pot, stir in cream* and taste for salt and pepper. Simmer just a couple of minutes to reheat.

5. Ladle soup into bowls and place a parmesan crisp on top. Serve another crisp on the side.

For the  Parmesan Crisps:

(these can be made a couple of days ahead and stored in an airtight container. Layer crisps with wax paper.)
Makes 8 crisps

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

2. Line a large baking sheet with a Silpat.   (update:: I’ve ditched my Silpats and just use baking parchment paper now).    Take a 2.5 inch biscuit cutter and place about 2 tablespoons of the cheese into the cutter. Press down a little on the cheese, to shape. Gently remove cutter. Repeat until you have made 8 mounds of cheese. If you like, add a little pinch of black pepper on top of each one. Bake for about 7-8 minutes, just until set and before they start to turn golden. Remove from oven, let cool on pan for a few minutes. They will firm up as they cool. Gently lift off with a spatula.