Creamy Tomato Soup With Buttery Croutons Food And Wine Recipes

Steps:

• In a large saucepan, melt a tablespoon of the butter in a tablespoon of the olive oil.
• Add the sliced onion and smashed garlic and cook over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until softened about 5 minutes.
• Add the tomatoes and their juice, the water, heavy cream, sugar, crushed red pepper, celery seed, and oregano and season with salt and pepper.
• Bring the soup to a boil over high heat, breaking up the tomatoes with the back of a spoon. Reduce the heat to moderate and simmer for 10 minutes.
• Meanwhile, in a small skillet, cook the remaining tablespoon of butter over moderately high heat until it begins to brown, about 1 minute.
• Scrape the browned butter into a medium bowl. Add the olive oil to the skillet. Add the diced bread and cook over moderately high heat, stirring occasionally, until it is slightly browned, about 6 minutes. Transfer the bread to the browned butter and toss well.
• Working in batches, transfer the tomato soup to a blender and puree until smooth.
• Return the soup to a clean pot and rewarm the soup if necessary.
• Season the soup with salt and pepper.
• Ladle the soup into bowls and serve with the croutons.

Steps:

• Preheat a large soup pot over medium heat. Saute the onions until translucent, 5-7 minutes. Add the garlic, herbs, salt, and pepper. Saute for 1 more minute, until garlic is fragrant.
• Add the potatoes and sun-dried tomatoes. Pour in the water. Cover and bring to a boil. Once the soup is boiling, lower the heat to medium, cover, and let simmer for about 20 minutes, until the potatoes are tender and the sun-dried tomatoes are soft.
• Add the crushed tomatoes and heat through. If you have an immersion blender, you're in luck! Puree the living hell out of it until it is very smooth. If you don't have one just transfer the whole shebang to a food processor or blender, in cooled batches, then transfer back to the pot. Add the lemon juice and adjust the salt if you need to.
• Variation: add half cup of shredded basil after pureeing.