My friend Monica is a fantastic cook. She hosted a Soup Night for the families at church and served up this yummy soup. Monica says she likes to freeze the extras and use it later for a quick pasta sauce. Make this sauce when tomatoes are on sale or when you need to use up tomatoes from the garden.
We used this recipe to feed the parishioners of St. John Vianney to celebrate the feast day of our patron saint. To make it go a little further, we added canned crushed tomatoes.
by Monica, Elizabeth’s friend
4 lbs ripe Roma or vine ripe tomatoes, quartered
1 onion, chopped in large chunks
4 cloves garlic, peeled
2 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp – 1 tsp crushed red pepper (1tsp if you like it hot!)
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup chopped fresh basil
Preheat oven to 450. Put tomatoes, onion, garlic, salt, sugar, red pepper and olive oil into 9×13 Pyrex and toss to coat. Cook for 50 minutes and stir occasionally.
Remove from oven.
For a chunky sauce: mash garlic with fork and sprinkle with basil.
For a smooth sauce: add basil and blend in with immersion blender.
For soup: add milk, half and half or cream to taste.
Monica likes to serve the soup with a spoon of basil pesto (basil, pine nuts, garlic and olive oil in food processor) and some fresh Parmesan cheese.
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