A few years ago I received two INCREDIBLE cookbooks for Christmas: Gwyneth Paltrow’s My Father’s Daughter and the latest from my favorite culinary goddess, Ina Garten: The Barefoot Contessa Foolproof. I read both cookbooks cover to cover and ended up combining two of their recipes to make this version of Tomato Soup: Ina’s soup combined with Gwyneth’s Slow Roasted Tomatoes. It ended up becoming The Best Tomato Soup Ever in the World.

Ingredients:

6 TBSP olive oil, divided

1 large Vidalia onion, chopped

1 TBSP minced garlic (3 cloves)

4 cups chicken stock *the orzo soaks up a lot of liquid so I always keep an additional 2-4 cups on hand in case soup gets too thick.

1 (28 oz) can crushed tomatoes

Large pinch of saffron threads

Sea Salt and Pepper

1/2 cup orzo

1/2 cup heavy cream

4 slices sourdough bread

4 slices Havarti Cheese

3 medium heirloom tomatoes

Directions for Slow Roasted Tomatoes:

1.) Pre-heat oven to 275°

2.) Slice heirloom tomatoes in half and place on a baking sheet cut side up. Brush olive oil over cut tomatoes and sprinkle with sea salt. Roast in oven for 4 hours. You will know they are done when most of the moisture has evaporated.

Directions for Soup:

1.) In a large pot or Dutch Oven, heat the olive oil on medium heat. Add onions and cook until golden-about 15 minutes. Add garlic and cook one more minute.

2.) Stir in chicken stock, canned tomatoes, saffron, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, then lower heat and simmer for 15 minutes.

3.) Meanwhile, fill a medium pot with water and add 2 tablespoons salt. Bring to a boil.

4.) Add orzo and cook for 7 minutes-it finishes cooking in the soup. Drain or orzo and add it to the soup.

5.) Stir in cream and slow roasted tomatoes cut into 1/2″ pieces, and return soup to a simmer. Cook for 10 more minutes stirring frequently.

6.) Using a Cuisinart Griddler or other Panini maker, make grilled cheese sandwiches with sourdough and havarti cheese. Cut into 1″ croutons.

Serve hot soup with grilled cheese croutons on top.

Enjoy!!

*Let’s be honest with each other. We all know this soup will taste even better when eaten out of these gorgeous white pumpkin bowls from Pier 1. They are still 20% off! Plus an additional 10% with promo code FALL10 at checkout!

-ciao for now-

lauren

*photo credit to McKinney Foto