Roasted Red Pepper and Tomato Soup with Sourdough Crostini
Ingredients:
3 red carmen peppers (roast whole for about 15 minutes @ 300. Then pull out the stem, cut in half to scrape the remaining seeds off with the back of your knife. Finally, Give a rough chop)
12-15 roma tomatoes, cut in half
8 cups of chicken or veggie stock
Salt and pepper to taste
1 medium white onion, diced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 tsp dried thyme
Dash of hot sauce
Splash of olive oil
1 tsp sugar
2 Tbl butter
Crostini Directions:
Sourdough Boule, cut desired amount of bread into 4 inch by 2 inch strips. Drizzle strips with olive oil, season with a little grated parmesan cheese and ground black pepper. Toast in toaster oven or regular oven on 250 for about 10-12 minutes.
Soup Directions: In a large heavy bottom soup pot add a splash of olive oil and turn on to medium high heat. After a few minutes add the thyme to the pan by itself for about 30-35 seconds then add the diced onions and sauté them until they become translucent, stirring occasionally. Now add your minced garlic and chopped roasted red peppers. Sauté for another 2-3 minutes then add all of the roma tomatoes. Season with salt and pepper and let the tomatoes cook down for about 10-12 minutes. Add your stock and splash of hot sauce and let the mixture come to a boil for about 2 minutes. Set your burner to low heat and let simmer for about 20 minutes. If you have an immersion blender now is the time to blend all of the ingredients together. If not, using a ladle remove any of the bulky bits and pulse them thru a food processor then return to the pot. Turn the heat off and stir in the butter to incorporate everything together and serve warm!
