Starter · Summer
Roasted Castellano tomato soup
Roasted tomatoes, sweet onion, garlic, blitzed and strained to silk. The bay goes in the blender. Velvet.
The tomatoes make this, so I get them at the market. Castellano. Ugly, ribbed, heavy in the hand, sold by a woman who has stood at the same stall longer than I have been alive. Nothing beats a Spanish tomato in season. They taste of sun and dirt and a sweetness a supermarket tomato can only dream about. Out of season, do not bother with this soup. Wait.
Everything goes in the oven first. Tomatoes in wedges, sweet onion in chunks, garlic left whole and crushed so it turns soft and sweet instead of sharp. Good Arbequina oil, oregano, thyme, rosemary, pepper. You roast it until the edges catch and the tomatoes start to caramelise. That browning is the whole flavour. Boil tomatoes and you get juice. Roast them and you get depth.
Then stock, the bay leaves, fifteen minutes on a low flame. The trick is to blend the bay right in with everything else, then strain the lot through a fine sieve. The bay gives its perfume to the whole pot and the sieve takes out every seed and skin, and what is left is silk. A drizzle of Arbequina on top, a few drops of sherry vinegar, and a piece of bread to drag through it.
- Total time
- 45 min
- Serves
- 4 people
- Difficulty
- 1 / 5
- Pair with
- A heel of crusty sourdough to drag through it, and a glass of cold Spanish rosado.
Ingredients
To roast
- 500 gCastellano tomatoes, in wedges · from the market, in season
- 1sweet onion, in chunks
- 5small garlic cloves, whole, lightly crushed
- 1 tbspArbequina olive oil, plus extra to drizzle
- 1 tspdried oregano
- 1 tspdried thyme
- ½ tspdried rosemary
- to tastefreshly ground black pepper
Soup
- 500 mlvegetable stock (1 cube)
- 2fresh bay leaves
To finish
- a few dropssherry vinegar or good balsamic
Method
- 1
Heat the oven to 200 °C, top and bottom heat.
- 2
Cut the tomatoes into wedges. Peel and roughly chop the onion. Leave the garlic cloves whole and crush them lightly with the side of a knife.
- 3
Spread the tomatoes, onion and garlic on a lined tray. Drizzle with the Arbequina, a little extra over the tomatoes.
- 4
Scatter over the oregano, thyme, rosemary and a good grind of black pepper.
- 5
Roast 25 to 30 minutes, until the vegetables are soft and the tomatoes start to caramelise at the edges.
- 6
Tip everything into a pot. Add the stock and the bay leaves. Bring to a boil, then simmer gently for 15 minutes.
- 7
Blend it all, bay leaves and all, until smooth.
- 8
Pass it through a fine sieve for a silky texture.
- 9
Taste and adjust with black pepper. Finish each bowl with a drizzle of Arbequina and a few drops of sherry vinegar.
