Roasted Cherry Tomato Soup

My friend and I like to cook in the evening when we get together, usually after some sort of fun outing earlier in the day. Last weekend we visited a few of the Chicago theatres, so I could photograph them as part of a project to go on the wall at my friend’s apartment. She had found a recipe for Roasted Cherry Tomato Soup in the newspaper a few weeks earlier and we had decided that we needed to make the recipe before the summer ended.

The tomatoes from a local farmers market have been wonderful this year, making a tomato soup would be the perfect way to celebrate late summer.

We made a few changes to the original recipe, including cutting it down to feed fewer people. I’m writing the recipe that I reduced, but when I make this again I will most likely not cut it down, but leave the number of servings the same as the original in the Chicago Tribune (adapted from a recipe by Ted Nugent at Goosefoot). The soup was delicious and we all wanted to have seconds but because we had cut the recipe there wasn’t enough!

The original recipe also called for Goat’s Cheese. I decided to not go for that, I feel as though goat’s cheese is an acquired taste and I wasn’t so sure that we would all like it. Also it was considerably more expensive. Unfortunately, there is nothing that comes particularly close to the flavour of goat’s cheese so I decided to substitute with ricotta to at least keep the texture similar. When making the recipe yourself you could use either, depending on your tastes.

Roasted Cherry Tomato Soup

Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 Spanish Onion, peeled and halved
3 pounds ripe cherry tomatoes
4 cloves garlic
1/4 cup fresh basil leaves
4 cups chicken broth
Ricotta cheese
Aged balsamic vinegar
Coarse salt
Freshly ground pepper

Heat the oven to 375F and heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large pan over a medium heat.
Please the onion halves, cut side down, in the pan and cook until caramelized.
Set aside a few tomatoes for garnish, a small handful should do.
Place the remaining tomatoes, caramelized onion and garlic on a rimmed baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil. season with salt and pepper to taste. Roast in the oven for about 30 minutes.

Place the roasted tomatoes, onions and garlic, along with the basil and chicken stock, into a large saucepan. Simmer, stirring occasionally, for 30 minutes.
Puree the soup in a blender, and season with more salt and pepper to taste.
Cut the reserved cherry tomatoes in half.
Serve warm, garnished with ricotta, halved cherry tomatoes and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar.

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