I know, I know, it’s summer. Why would I be posting a soup recipe? I have my reasons. Have any of you had a summer cold?
Last week I came down with a horrendous, vicious summer cold that kicked my ASS; I haven’t been that sick in a very long time. It was a typical coughing all night, throat on fire, severe fatigue, head pounding, body aching nasty ass full-on snot fest. When I say I was miserable – I’m NOT even kidding. The CDC needs to implement a damn vaccine for f’ing summer colds; the FSC Vaccine.
“Keep hydrated” everybody kept saying. Seriously? I couldn’t tolerate drinking a damn thing. I barely wanted to drink or eat, but I did crave this tomato soup. Not just any regular tomato soup, but I wanted sherried tomato basil soup.
Sometimes I have to be difficult.
So, on day #2 of this bitch of an illness I made it for myself (my husband would have but he was working and I was hell bent that I was going to have this soup). I made this soup a year or so before, didn’t write it down, and tried to recreate it to the best of my memory. Thankfully my memory decided to be awesome. I’m sure it felt sorry for me because I was sick as hell.
It felt SO GOOD on my throat and tasted so good I ate it until I couldn’t breathe. I love most any tomato soup, especially tomato basil, but sherry puts it in a league of its own. Oh, how I love sherry.
Now, any good tomato soup fan knows that the soup alone doesn’t cut it. No. You have to have a top-notch grilled cheese to dip in it.
I used a combination of Fontina and Mozzarella, because I want the maximum meltiness. And I found out that these two cheeses melt like they’re in damn competition with each other. Who knew.
See all that lusciousness?
The taste is off the charts.
It’s beautiful.
Ingredients
- 2 garlic cloves, crushed
- 1/2 onion, diced
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 28 oz can crushed tomatoes
- 1 16 oz can petite diced tomatoes
- 2 tbsp salted butter
- 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- 1 handful fresh basil, chopped or torn
- 1/2 cup sherry cooking wine
- 1/2 cup whole cream
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Good quality white bread
- Salted butter, softened
- Mozzarella cheese (whole milk), sliced thin
- Fontina cheese, sliced thin
Instructions
- Heat the garlic, onion and olive oil over medium low heat and saute until fragrant, about 5-7 minutes.
- Add both cans of tomatoes, butter and Worcestershire sauce and increase heat to medium and bring to a slow boil. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Add basil and sherry, and continue to cook for another 5 minutes.
- Add whole cream, stirring to thoroughly incorporate, cover and simmer for about 2-3 minutes.
- Salt and pepper to taste, remove from heat and serve.
- Slather two slices of white bread with softened butter on one side and add them butter side down to a frying pan or griddle over medium heat.
- Immediately add equal amounts of both cheeses to cover the bottom slice of bread, top with another slice of bread with butter side up.
- Grill for 2-3 minutes on each side.
- Dip in your tomato soup!
- [xyz-ihs snippet="Swoop"]
3 Comments
Katherines Corner
July 6, 2014 at 9:45 PMah yummy comfort food for grown ups. Hugs
Shea
July 6, 2014 at 10:09 PMI know! Definitely comfort food to me. Thanks Katherine!