Italian Tomato Soup With Pesto Cheese Toasts Recipes

FRESH TOMATO SOUP WITH CRISPY CHEESE TOAST

Steps:

• Remove cores from tomatoes and cut in half crosswise. Reserve until needed.
• Heat olive oil and butter in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Add garlic and anchovy and cook until garlic is sizzling in the hot fat, 45 seconds to 1 minute. Carefully add the tomatoes with their juices, salt, and red pepper flakes. Toss with a spoon every few minutes until the tomatoes release their liquid and start to break down.
• Once the tomatoes have softened and start to collapse, reduce heat to medium-low and cook, stirring occasionally, until the tomatoes have fallen apart and the soup resembles a coarse tomato sauce, about 45 minutes.
• Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C). Line a baking sheet with foil or a silicone liner. Drizzle with 2 tablespoons olive oil.
• Place the bread slices on the prepared baking sheet. Top each slice with sliced basil, and then Cheddar cheese.
• Bake in the preheated oven until the cheese is well browned and crispy around the edges, 15 to 20 minutes. Let cool to room temperature.
• Remove soup from heat and pass through a mesh strainer into a bowl. Use the back of a ladle to push all the tomato mixture through. Discard the skins and seeds, which should be the only things left in the strainer.
• Transfer the strained tomato soup back into the saucepan and place back over medium-low heat. Continue cooking to thicken slightly, if desired, or simply bring back to a simmer and serve immediately with the cheese toasts.

CREAMY TOMATO SOUP WITH PESTO

Steps:

• Heat the milk over moderate heat in a medium pot.
• Put tomatoes, tomato paste, onions, salt and pepper, sugar, flour, butter, and celery into a food processor and grind until smooth.
• Pour mixture into milk and raise heat to bring soup to a boil.
• Reduce heat and then simmer 15 minutes.
• While soup cooks, make pesto, if not using storebought.
• Fill the food processor with watercress, loosely packed.
• Add hazelnuts, 1/2 of the oil and garlic cloves to the watercress in the processor.
• Add nutmeg, salt and pepper to the processor bowl, set lid in place and pulse grind the mixture into a thick paste.
• Add any remaining watercress to the processor and grind into the paste by pulsing the processor again.
• Transfer watercress paste to a bowl.
• Stir in the remaining oil and the cheese.
• Taste pesto sauce and adjust seasonings.
• Pour soup into shallow bowls and add a couple of rounded spoonfuls of pesto to each dish and stir it into the soup.

PESTO TOMATO SOUP

Steps:

• In a pot, melt the butter over medium-high heat, then cook the shallots with some fresh thyme. Add the crushed tomatoes, 1 1/2 cups water and the heavy cream; simmer 20 minutes. Puree, then stir in the pesto. Season with salt.

ITALIAN TOMATO SOUP WITH PESTO-CHEESE TOASTS

Steps:

• In 3-quart saucepan, heat water, tomatoes and tomato juice to boiling.
• Set oven control to broil. Place bread on cookie sheet. Spread with pesto; sprinkle with cheese. Broil with tops 4 to 6 inches from heat 1 to 2 minutes or until edges of bread are golden brown.
• Into 4 soup bowls, ladle soup. Top each serving with bread slice.