In honor of it no longer being winter, we have resolved to take on tomato soup. As with our seafood soups, we've decided not to choose a single recipe, but rather to each find something that suits our own particular tastes, mood, and ingredient availability. My mom also suggested that we make something to go along with our soup, so that means a total of four recipes!
Make dukka:
Pulse all dukka ingredients in a food processor or an electric coffee/spice grinder until very finely ground, about 3 minutes (do not grind to a paste).
Make flatbread:
Stir together warm water, honey, and yeast in bowl of a stand electric mixer fitted with paddle attachment (see cooks' note below if you don't have a stand mixer) and let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes. (If mixture doesn't foam, start over with new yeast.) Add 2 cups flour, salt, and oil and beat at medium speed until incorporated. Replace paddle with dough hook and, if necessary, add 2 to 3 teaspoons more flour, 1 teaspoon at a time, until dough begins to pull away from side of bowl and is smooth but still slightly sticky to the touch, about 5 minutes.
Transfer dough to a large oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise in a warm, draft-free place until doubled in bulk, about 2 hours.
Put oven racks in upper and lower thirds of oven and preheat oven to 425°F.
Punch down dough and transfer to a lightly floured surface. Divide dough in half and let stand, covered with plastic wrap, 10 minutes.
Roll out 1 piece of dough (keep remaining piece covered) on a lightly floured surface with a lightly floured rolling pin into a roughly 17- by 11-inch rectangle. (Dough will be very thin.) Transfer dough to 1 of shallow baking pans. (Repair any tears in dough by pinching together.) Repeat with second piece of dough, transferring it to second baking pan. Sprinkle half of dukka over each rectangle and bake, switching position of pans and rotating them 180 degrees halfway through baking, until golden, about 20 minutes total. Cool in pans on racks 5 minutes, then transfer flatbreads to a cutting board and cut each into pieces with a sharp heavy knife. (Centers will be crisp.)
My version
I don't particularly like bread, but I do love pizza and crackers, and this flatbread occupies a deliciously elusive space between these two things. I baked only half the dough, putting the other half in the freezer to make another time. The only modifications I made were to roll the dough into a circle rather than a rectangle (because it was easier), and to brush the dough with olive oil before sprinkling on the dukka, as some of the online reviews mentioned that otherwise the spice doesn't really stick. The bread baked beautifully, though it did bubble up quite a bit in a few places (not necessarily a bad thing, but perhaps dimpling the dough, like you do with focaccia, would help produce a smoother surface). And even with the olive oil, the dukka did fall off a bit. I strategically ate the bread over my soup bowl, so that the spice would fall directly into my soup and thus be put to good use. The flatbread was quite lovely, and I'd like to try using dukka on other things, too - I think it would be particularly wonderful as a crunchy coating for fish.
ANN'S SOUP: Provencal Tomato Soup
I love Patricia Wells's recipes and own at least 5 of her cookbooks. Her recipes use ingredients I can find and aren't so complicated that I would put off making them until I have a big chunk of time. Plus, every recipe of hers has proved to be delicious! The recipe for Sauteed Chicken Breasts with Fresh Sage from her 1993 Trattoria cookbook is one of my family's favorite all-time dishes. (Maybe I should figure out how to convert that to a soup!)
My version
Ann's Version: For once I didn't double or triple the recipe, figuring it was so simple it'd be as easy to make a new batch as to unthaw a container from the freezer. I made very few changes, just using vegetable boullion for the stock and cooking the tomatoes for about 15 minutes more. When it was all strained it really was just glorified tomato juice (but really good) so to pep it up I added about a teaspoon of grated lemon rind and the persillade of garlic and parsley. That turned it into delicious soup! The first day I ate it hot from the pot and it was great. Second day it was cold from the refrigerator and just as good. So easy and fast!
CASSIE'S SOUP: Egyptian-Inspired Tomato Soup
No, I've never been to Egypt, and given the current political state, I don't think I'll be going there anytime soon. But as I was searching for recipes, I came across one for Egyptian Tomato Soup which looked delicious, easy, and (usually most important for me) spicy. This recipe was created by an American woman who traveled to Egypt, had a transformative bowl of soup, and tried to recreate it when she returned home. Thus, neither she nor I can vouch for its authenticity, but I can certainly vouch for its flavor. I did, of course, modify the recipe slightly, taking it even further away from its inspiration. I got the recipe from the prolific website The Kitchn.
Egyptian Tomato Soup, by Patti Londre
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 medium brown onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 (4 ounce) jar diced pimientos
1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes, with juice; or 1 pound fresh tomatoes
1 (14.5 ounce) can low sodium chicken broth, or 2 cups homemade chicken stock
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1 limes cut into wedges
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
In a large stockpot over medium heat, melt the butter. Add the onion and garlic, cook until soft, about 5 minutes. Add the pimientos and tomatoes, cover and cook gently for 10 minutes. Add the stock, chili powder and paprika and cook for an additional 5 minutes. Using an immersion blender (or transfer to a food processor or blender), puree until almost smooth. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve with fresh lime squeezed on top.
My version
I had just roasted red bell peppers, so I substituted one pepper for the jarred pimientos (I weighed it and it was just about 15 ounces). I opted for fresh tomatoes even though they are not yet at their peak, because I found some that actually looked quite good, and winter has made me so tired of opening cans! I substituted Urfa pepper, a rather fantastic and complex Turkish crushed pepper, for the "chili" powder called for in the recipe, and I used about 3/4 of a teaspoon of it. I used smoked paprika and increased the amount to 1/2 teaspoon. After blending everything together, I went ahead and squeezed about a quarter of a lime directly into the soup. I didn't want to overdo the citrus, as tomatoes are already very acidic, so I went easier on the lime than I often do, but I loved the result. (Another reason to go easy on limes right now: they are super expensive and increasingly rare!). One nice thing about this soup is that it takes very little time to make; you need only chop ingredients roughly because it is blended at the end. The other nice thing is, of course, the taste. Absolutely wonderful - light but filling, flavorful without being overly fussy, and a very welcome break from winter. Topped with a dollop of sour cream and served with the flatbread, below, it makes for a very pleasant meal.
CASSIE'S ACCOMPANIMENT: Flatbread with Dukka
This recipe comes from the much missed Gourmet magazine. My mom is not only an avid cookbook reader and collector, but she has as times also been a rather obsessive recipient of cooking magazines (though I hear she's cut back recently!). Until she could scour each issue and clip out the very best recipes, she would keep all the magazines - Bon Apetit, Cook's Illustrated, Saveur, and of course Gourmet, to name a few - under our coffee table. Though I didn't cook much until high school, I loved pulling out a random issue while I was a kid, perusing it on the couch while my mom made dinner (we were a very food aware household!). Even then, Gourmet seemed to have not only the most interesting recipes of all the magazines, but also the best writing. Gourmet's allure for me was compounded by my mom's brief acquaintance with its editor, Ruth Reichl, when the two were living in Michigan in their 20s. Their acquaintance might have been brief, but it was productive: a picture of my mother, looking quite stylish, appears on page 46 of Ruth Reichl's very first cookbook, the psychedelic yet strangely practical Mmmmmm A Festiary. I was always mighty impressed with this photo, and I now have my own copy of the book (which has become quite expensive and difficult to find as it is, like Reichl's magazine, now out of print).
Egyptian Tomato Soup, by Patti Londre
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 medium brown onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 (4 ounce) jar diced pimientos
1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes, with juice; or 1 pound fresh tomatoes
1 (14.5 ounce) can low sodium chicken broth, or 2 cups homemade chicken stock
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1 limes cut into wedges
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
In a large stockpot over medium heat, melt the butter. Add the onion and garlic, cook until soft, about 5 minutes. Add the pimientos and tomatoes, cover and cook gently for 10 minutes. Add the stock, chili powder and paprika and cook for an additional 5 minutes. Using an immersion blender (or transfer to a food processor or blender), puree until almost smooth. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve with fresh lime squeezed on top.
My version
I had just roasted red bell peppers, so I substituted one pepper for the jarred pimientos (I weighed it and it was just about 15 ounces). I opted for fresh tomatoes even though they are not yet at their peak, because I found some that actually looked quite good, and winter has made me so tired of opening cans! I substituted Urfa pepper, a rather fantastic and complex Turkish crushed pepper, for the "chili" powder called for in the recipe, and I used about 3/4 of a teaspoon of it. I used smoked paprika and increased the amount to 1/2 teaspoon. After blending everything together, I went ahead and squeezed about a quarter of a lime directly into the soup. I didn't want to overdo the citrus, as tomatoes are already very acidic, so I went easier on the lime than I often do, but I loved the result. (Another reason to go easy on limes right now: they are super expensive and increasingly rare!). One nice thing about this soup is that it takes very little time to make; you need only chop ingredients roughly because it is blended at the end. The other nice thing is, of course, the taste. Absolutely wonderful - light but filling, flavorful without being overly fussy, and a very welcome break from winter. Topped with a dollop of sour cream and served with the flatbread, below, it makes for a very pleasant meal.
CASSIE'S ACCOMPANIMENT: Flatbread with Dukka
This recipe comes from the much missed Gourmet magazine. My mom is not only an avid cookbook reader and collector, but she has as times also been a rather obsessive recipient of cooking magazines (though I hear she's cut back recently!). Until she could scour each issue and clip out the very best recipes, she would keep all the magazines - Bon Apetit, Cook's Illustrated, Saveur, and of course Gourmet, to name a few - under our coffee table. Though I didn't cook much until high school, I loved pulling out a random issue while I was a kid, perusing it on the couch while my mom made dinner (we were a very food aware household!). Even then, Gourmet seemed to have not only the most interesting recipes of all the magazines, but also the best writing. Gourmet's allure for me was compounded by my mom's brief acquaintance with its editor, Ruth Reichl, when the two were living in Michigan in their 20s. Their acquaintance might have been brief, but it was productive: a picture of my mother, looking quite stylish, appears on page 46 of Ruth Reichl's very first cookbook, the psychedelic yet strangely practical Mmmmmm A Festiary. I was always mighty impressed with this photo, and I now have my own copy of the book (which has become quite expensive and difficult to find as it is, like Reichl's magazine, now out of print).
Which is a long way of introducing this recipe for Flatbread with Dukka, which appeared in the November 2004 issue of Gourmet, though I found it online. Perhaps my mother once clipped it from the magazine and added it to her massive recipe binders. Which she should have done - it's wonderful! This bread is, like the recipe above, inspired by Egypt. The spice and nut blend, dukka, is apparently used throughout the Middle East, though I'd like to fix that, and have it be widely used everywhere. It's a fascinating and highly addictive combination of flavors.
Flatbread with Dukka, from Gourmet
Flatbread with Dukka, from Gourmet
For dukka:
2 tablespoons whole hazelnuts
1 1/2 tablespoons sesame seeds
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/2 teaspoon black peppercorns
For flatbread:
3/4 cup warm water (105 - 115°F)
1 tablespoon mild honey
1/2 teaspoon active dry yeast (from a 1/4-oz package)
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour plus additional as necessary
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon olive oil
Special equipment: 2 large (17- by 11-inch) shallow baking pans
Make dukka:
Pulse all dukka ingredients in a food processor or an electric coffee/spice grinder until very finely ground, about 3 minutes (do not grind to a paste).
Make flatbread:
Stir together warm water, honey, and yeast in bowl of a stand electric mixer fitted with paddle attachment (see cooks' note below if you don't have a stand mixer) and let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes. (If mixture doesn't foam, start over with new yeast.) Add 2 cups flour, salt, and oil and beat at medium speed until incorporated. Replace paddle with dough hook and, if necessary, add 2 to 3 teaspoons more flour, 1 teaspoon at a time, until dough begins to pull away from side of bowl and is smooth but still slightly sticky to the touch, about 5 minutes.
Transfer dough to a large oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise in a warm, draft-free place until doubled in bulk, about 2 hours.
Put oven racks in upper and lower thirds of oven and preheat oven to 425°F.
Punch down dough and transfer to a lightly floured surface. Divide dough in half and let stand, covered with plastic wrap, 10 minutes.
Roll out 1 piece of dough (keep remaining piece covered) on a lightly floured surface with a lightly floured rolling pin into a roughly 17- by 11-inch rectangle. (Dough will be very thin.) Transfer dough to 1 of shallow baking pans. (Repair any tears in dough by pinching together.) Repeat with second piece of dough, transferring it to second baking pan. Sprinkle half of dukka over each rectangle and bake, switching position of pans and rotating them 180 degrees halfway through baking, until golden, about 20 minutes total. Cool in pans on racks 5 minutes, then transfer flatbreads to a cutting board and cut each into pieces with a sharp heavy knife. (Centers will be crisp.)
My version
I don't particularly like bread, but I do love pizza and crackers, and this flatbread occupies a deliciously elusive space between these two things. I baked only half the dough, putting the other half in the freezer to make another time. The only modifications I made were to roll the dough into a circle rather than a rectangle (because it was easier), and to brush the dough with olive oil before sprinkling on the dukka, as some of the online reviews mentioned that otherwise the spice doesn't really stick. The bread baked beautifully, though it did bubble up quite a bit in a few places (not necessarily a bad thing, but perhaps dimpling the dough, like you do with focaccia, would help produce a smoother surface). And even with the olive oil, the dukka did fall off a bit. I strategically ate the bread over my soup bowl, so that the spice would fall directly into my soup and thus be put to good use. The flatbread was quite lovely, and I'd like to try using dukka on other things, too - I think it would be particularly wonderful as a crunchy coating for fish.
ANN'S SOUP: Provencal Tomato Soup
I love Patricia Wells's recipes and own at least 5 of her cookbooks. Her recipes use ingredients I can find and aren't so complicated that I would put off making them until I have a big chunk of time. Plus, every recipe of hers has proved to be delicious! The recipe for Sauteed Chicken Breasts with Fresh Sage from her 1993 Trattoria cookbook is one of my family's favorite all-time dishes. (Maybe I should figure out how to convert that to a soup!)
Cold Tomato Soup with Basil, adapted from At Home in Provence by Patricia Wells
2 cloves
1 onion, halved
2 pounds firm, ripe tomatoes, quartered
4 garlic cloves, peeled and quartered
2 t. salt
1 stalk celery, minced
1 T. extra-virgin olive oil
2 c. water or veg. stock
1 bunch fresh thyme
2 fresh bay leaves
4 T. basil leaves, cut into julienne strips
Press a clove into each half of the onion and place in a stockpot. Add the tomatoes to the pot along with the garlic, salt, celery, oil, water or stock, thyme and bay leaves. Bring to a boil over high heat, lower the heat, and simmer uncovered for 20 minutes. Remove the onions, thyme and bay leaves and discard. Pass the soup through the coarse blade of a food mill into a bowl. Taste for seasoning. Serve the soup hot or cold, sprinkled with fresh basil. Add a persillade of finely minced garlic and parsley if you like.
My version
Ann's Version: For once I didn't double or triple the recipe, figuring it was so simple it'd be as easy to make a new batch as to unthaw a container from the freezer. I made very few changes, just using vegetable boullion for the stock and cooking the tomatoes for about 15 minutes more. When it was all strained it really was just glorified tomato juice (but really good) so to pep it up I added about a teaspoon of grated lemon rind and the persillade of garlic and parsley. That turned it into delicious soup! The first day I ate it hot from the pot and it was great. Second day it was cold from the refrigerator and just as good. So easy and fast!
ANN'S ACCOMPANIMENT: Rosemary Brioche Rolls, from Country Living Magazine, April 2014
1 T. active dry yeast
3-1/3 c. all-purpose flour
1/4 c. sugar
1 t. salt
5 large eggs
1 stick unsalted butter at room temp.
1 T. finely chopped fresh rosemary
1 T. freshly ground pepper
1 T. coarse salt, such as Maldon or kosher
In a small bowl, whisk together yeast and 1/2 c. lukewarm water. Let sit until it becomes bubbly (about 10 min.). Combine flour, sugar and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer or a large bowl. Add yeast mixture and stir well to combine. Add 4 eggs one at a time, mixing well with each addition. Add butter, rosemary and pepper and stir until just combined. Transfer dough to a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and it comes together. Put in a large bowl, covered with a damp towel and let sit in a warm place until it's doubled in size (about an hour). Prepare a baking pan by lining it with parchment, divide dough into 12 pieces, and roll each piece into a ball and place them on the parchment. Cover loosely and let rise until doubled in size (about 30-45 min.). Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Whisk remaining egg with 1 T. water and brush tops of rolls with egg wash. Sprinkle with coarse salt and bake until golden brown, about 20 min.
My version
These were wonderful! I picked this recipe because the rosemary seemed appropriate to accompany a Provencal soup and the pepper was an extra bonus taste. I used Balinese long pepper that I'd gotten a while ago from Zingerman's Deli. It has a very floral taste and not too much bite, and it gave the rolls an exotic flavor that would be not easily identified as pepper. Using a Kitchenaid mixer the rolls went together really fast. I'll definitely be using this recipe again, maybe experimenting with substituting various other spices and herbs. I made the rolls to go with the cold soup and the contrast of the hot rolls and the pepper with the cold tomato was fantastic.
These were wonderful! I picked this recipe because the rosemary seemed appropriate to accompany a Provencal soup and the pepper was an extra bonus taste. I used Balinese long pepper that I'd gotten a while ago from Zingerman's Deli. It has a very floral taste and not too much bite, and it gave the rolls an exotic flavor that would be not easily identified as pepper. Using a Kitchenaid mixer the rolls went together really fast. I'll definitely be using this recipe again, maybe experimenting with substituting various other spices and herbs. I made the rolls to go with the cold soup and the contrast of the hot rolls and the pepper with the cold tomato was fantastic.
