Roast Tomato And Basil Soup With Olive Oil Toasts

Total Time: 1 hr 5 mins Preparation Time: 15 mins Cook Time: 50 mins

Ingredients

• Servings: 4
• 800 g tomatoes
• 1 red pepper
• 2 -3 cloves garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
• 3 tablespoons olive oil, plus
• extra olive oil, for drizzling
• 1 liter vegetable stock
• 1/2 cup basil leaves, roughly chopped
• 1 french bread, for toasting
• salt, to taste
• fresh ground black pepper, to taste

Recipe

• 1 pre-heat the oven to 220 c or about 425-450°f.
• 2 quarter each tomato, or cut slightly smaller if they are really big, and place in a roasting tin that is safe for both the oven and stove-top.
• 3 halve the pepper, deseed it and then cut each half into about 3 pieces.
• 4 add the pepper and chopped garlic in with the tomatoes along with the olive oil.
• 5 season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.
• 6 roast for about 45 minutes or until the tomatoes are soft and their skin has started to blacken, but just slightly.
• 7 you don't want to incinerate them!
• 8 pour the stock into the roasting tin.
• 9 if you don't have a tin that will go on top of the stove you will have to transfer everything into a large pot.
• 10 add in the basil and bring briefly to a boil.
• 11 use a blender to liquidise most of the mixture, leaving just a couple handfuls of tomatoes and pepper behind.
• 12 drain them of any liquid, then finely chop the tomato and pepper.
• 13 season to taste.
• 14 just before you are ready to serve, cut the bread thinly on an angle and toast it under the grill.
• 15 pile a bit of the chopped tomato and pepper in the centre of the bowls and ladle the soup around it.
• 16 float the toast on top and drizzle with olive oil.