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Roasted Tomato Soup with Pesto and Grilled Cheese Croutons

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You know those big containers of grape tomatoes you can get at Costco?  Well, I’m a sucker for them. Problem is I can never seem to use them up fast enough before they start to wrinkle unless I have a recipe already planned for them.  And that’s what happened this last time I purchased them.  So I tossed them in the oven to roast and ended up with this delicious Roasted Tomato Soup with Pesto and Grilled Cheese Croutons!

I sort of winged it with this recipe, but was quite pleased with the end result.   And, because I love to dunk a grilled cheese sandwich in my tomato soup, I cut one up into bite sized pieces and put them on top like croutons!

 

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Roasted Tomato Soup with Pesto

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Ingredients

Scale
  • 1 lg. container (or 2 smaller ones) grape tomatoes
  • 6 cloves garlic, whole, skins left on
  • Olive oil, enough to coat the tomatoes and sauté vegetables
  • salt & pepper
  • 1 tsp. fennel seeds
  • 1 onion, diced
  • 1 celery stalk, diced (opt.)
  • 1 carrot, diced
  • 1 tsp. dried basil
  • 1 Tbls. tomato paste
  • 2 1/2 C. chicken stock
  • 1 tsp. sugar
  • 1/2 C. half & half
  • 2 Tbls. Pesto (homemade or storebought)
  • Garnish: dollop of pesto and grilled cheese sandwich cut into bite sized pieces

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
  2. Add tomatoes, garlic, fennel, salt and pepper and toss with olive oil to coat. Roast for about 20 minutes.
  3. Meanwhile, in soup pot, sauté onions, celery, carrot in about 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Add dried basil and a little salt and pepper to season as the vegetables cook* (see note below)
  4. Remove tomatoes from oven. Peel skins off garlic and add garlic to soup pot with the tomatoes and all the juice on the baking tray. Add chicken broth, sugar and tomato paste. Stir, cover and simmer for about 15-20 minutes.
  5. Puree soup with immersion blender, then add half and half and pesto. Let simmer a few more minutes, then serve.
  6. Garnish with an extra dollop of pesto and a grilled cheese sandwich cut into bite sized pieces

Notes

*I have made this roasting all the vegetables with the tomatoes and save this step.