I guess I am a bit late about this roasted tomato soup recipe as the season is over, but better late than never (or next year), right?
This roasted tomato soup with goat’s cheese crostini recipe belongs to Gordon Ramsay and was published in his column at Times Online. It has great depth, thanks to roasting the tomatoes with red onions, sea salt, olive oil, fresh thyme and a bit of sugar in the oven. Since this is a pretty straight forward recipe with few ingredients, it all comes down to how good your tomatoes are.
I live in Turkey and can only offer advice on where to find the best tomatoes here. And you may think – just like I did a while back – that this information isn’t all that important since most of you won’t be purchasing tomatoes in Turkey anytime soon. I used to think that the readers of my English blog lived abroad, and I would have still thought the same had I not been informed that the Professional American Women of Istanbul (PAWI) is following Cafe Fernando! They’re even sharing my recipes in their newsletters. So things like “where to find the best tomatoes” or “how to choose the right cream cheese for a cheesecake” all become vital information.
You already know the answer to the second question.
And here’s the answer to the first one: The chances of finding a great tomato in Istanbul (even in season) are very slim. That is unless you’re my father’s son.
And since most of you aren’t, stop looking and try Ms. Pınar’s tomatoes. In 1996, she got tired of the big city, retired and moved to her parents’ farm in Aydın, a city in Turkey’s Aegean region best known for its figs. She started to grow her own produce to feed her daughter, but it soon became a small business for her. Her produce is all organic and especially her tomatoes are out of this world.
Who has the luxury of preparing a soup with Heirloom pink tomatoes? Thanks to her, I do. You can send her an e-mail (she speaks English) to be included in her mailing list. She sends out a list (in Excel) every Sunday night and accepts orders throughout the week. The produce is delivered to your door (only within Turkey) two days after your order (paid by the receiver). She also has two stores in İstanbul, one in Balmumcu (European side) and the other one in Fenerbahçe (Asian side).
Happy cooking. Enjoy!
ROASTED TOMATO SOUP RECIPE
Recipe adapted from Gordon Ramsay’s Times article.
Ingredients
Serves 6
For the soup:
- 3.5 pounds tomatoes, halved
- 2 red onions, peeled and thinly sliced
- 3 garlic cloves, peeled and halved
- 10-15 sprigs of fresh thyme, leaves picked
- 4 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp sugar
- Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 3 cups chicken or vegetable stock
For the goat’s cheese crostini:
- 12 slices of baguette
- 2 tbsp olive oil, for brushing
- 3.5 oz goat’s cheese
- 1 tbsp water
- 2-3 sprigs of fresh thyme, leaves picked
Method
- Preheat your oven to 425 F.
- Halve the tomatoes and place them in a roasting pan, cut sides up.
- Slice the onions thinly and scatter them on top of the tomatoes together with the thyme leaves.
- Pour the olive oil on top of the tomatoes, sprinkle over the caster sugar and season generously with salt and pepper.
- Place the pan in the oven and roast for 20-25 minutes, until the tomatoes are soft and slightly caramelized.
- Place the roasted tomatoes and juices in a saucepan. Bring the stock to the boil in a separate pan and then pour over the tomatoes. Simmer for 5 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and strain through a sieve, reserving the stock.
- Place the tomatoes into a blender or food processor and blend, gradually adding the stock back in, until the soup is smooth and creamy. If you wish, you can pass the soup through a sieve again and back into a clean saucepan. Taste the soup and adjust the seasoning if necessary. Set aside and reheat when needed.
- To prepare the goat’s cheese crostini, brush the bread slices with the olive oil. Grill on both sides until lightly toasted. Mix the goat’s cheese, water and thyme leaves together in a small pot and heat until creamy. Take off heat and spread over one side of each slice of bread. Sprinkle a few more thyme leaves and serve with the soup.
We are lucky in Texas to have 2 tomato growing seasons. I will try this with our autumn crop!
the picture with “the tomatoes and onions with sprinkled herbs on top and a drizzle of olive oil” looks so delicious on its own, it makes me forget to proceed to the final photograph…and this is not the first time this is happening to me…i remember something like a vegetable stock that watered my mouth this way before 🙂
thanks for the pics and the recipes…frankly i can not distinguish which gives me the kick to cook the pictures or the recipes… cause what i come up with at the end is as delicious as you can expect from the pictures but not as good looking…you have some artistry going on which I most like about this favorite cooking blog of mine… thanks
That looks like a killer recipe–always looking for new stuff–especially vegetarian recipes
This looks amazing! I’m quite a fan of Gordon Ramsay recipes as the ones I’ve tried always turn out well. Will have to try this to when it gets colder.
Great photos too! 🙂
This looks like a fantastic recipe. I love tomato soup any time of the year. It must have so much flavor from roasting the tomatos with the onions and herbs.
thank you very very much Cenk
😉
We are still getting tomatoes in Texas, rice, fresh ones too! nothing beats the aroma of the roasted tomato.
Looks gorgeous! Love the color.
I am writing about some crostini today too 🙂
LL
I sent Ms. Pinar a completely blank email because I don’t know Turkish and I don’t know if she knows English. I hope she adds me to her list and doesn’t just get confused by this.
I am very excited about this (except I guess about the fact that Aydin is so far away, on another continent from me even, heh). Thanks for the info!
Zoha – Ms. Pinar speaks English, so please feel free to write to her but she only ships within Turkey.
What a delicious tip. Roasting your tomatoes will intensify the flavour of your soup and that is why I also roast my pumpkin for soup as well. BTW Your pictures are to die for.
I grow Carmello tomatoes in my garden. I think they’re perfect. Small, not heirloom, but not supermarket hard either. If you can find them, give them a try.
Fantastic photo and great idea! What a nice way to prolong the summer!
My favorite soup in the entire world! Thanks for sharing. Even just looking at the photo made my day.
I live in New York but still love hearing about where you find your tomatoes in Istanbul! Food shopping is always interesting regardless of who is doing it where.
Photos are lovely. Soup doesn’t sound too bad either.
No good tomatoes in New York at this time od the year, but I find roasting store bought ones in the oven improves the flavor tremendously.
I have heard that roasting hothouse tomatoes improves the flavor, so maybe you are right on time!! This sounds like a lovely soup and I am ashamed to say that while I have made many soups I have never made a hot tomato soup-I should give this one a try!
Hi
thanks for bringing this recipe up!
Also your photos are great…
I tried it on my visitors last week and we all loved this soup.
S.
I must find me some tomatoes at the Farmers Market TODAY!!
oh yum
How cool to be able to buy directly from organic farmers! This soup looks great for this season!
in some other part of the world they have summer and fresh tomatoes now! 😉
Just made this and it is delicious!!! A keeper in my recipe collection!
I used a stick blender right in the soup pot instead. I then used a strainer to keep it smooth.
I topped this off with a drizzle of porcini infused olive oil. Thank you for the inspiration!
I made this soup for a family celebration and it was amazing. So easy to do too. I used a stick blender as well and all the juice from the roasting tin. Lovely consistency very creamy and a lovely colour. I have just made my second batch in six days and will freeze some of it. Thank you for a lovely recipe.
This looks amazing. I love that you roasted the onion and tomato together. Beautiful photos as well.
Made this soup and it’s absolutely amazing!Both me and my boyfriend enjoyed it!I’m glad I found this website. I was looking for Turkish tomatoe soup and found this! Cok tessekkur ediyorum!
Afiyet olsun! 🙂
I loooove roasted tomato soup. I love that you roasted the garlic, too! I may have to try this once we actually get a chilly fall day.
This looks delicious. I am making this right now and adding an apple for sweetness along with some vegan cream cheese for creaminess. Serving it with vegan grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch for company today. So excited for this!