Why on earth would you need to read about how to make these things? Well, I found a tomato soup recipe that is unusually kickass. It’s from Bon Appetit and allegedly comes from Gramercy Tavern, which is a famous place with expensive food. So there. The grilled cheese was not from a famous place, and was made in the usual way:
Which was as good as usual. But anyway. The soup. Go follow the link if you want to make it the for realsies Tom Colicchio way. I changed a few minor things, in part because I misread the recipe. But whatever, here’s a good recipe for soup:
Tomato Soup
1 28 oz. can whole tomatoes
1 big onion
5-6 cloves of garlic, chopped
3 cups vegetable stock (or “Unchicken Stock” if you buy the organic shit for lazy people like I do because no, I don’t make my own stock because I am a horrible Sandra Lee-esque barbarian. People get so huffy if you buy your stock.)
half a stale baguette
olive oil
red pepper flakes
basil
parmesan cheese, with rind
soft cheese, I used goat
Okay, so chop up the onion, put it in a pot with a tablespoon or so of olive oil, and sweat it until it’s really soft. While it’s doing that, put the oven to 300, cut the baguette into chunks, and toss with olive oil and half of the chopped garlic. You just need enough olive oil to kind of coat the bread, not make it soggy or anything. Pop the croutons on a cookie sheet and into the oven they go–20 minutes or until they’re brown-ish and crouton-y.
Meanwhile, when your onions are soft, dump the rest of the chopped garlic in, cook for a minute, then add the stock and the tomatoes with juices. The original recipe said to use diced tomatoes. This is probably wise. Everyone always says tomato seeds make sauce bitter. I’ve never found this to be true, but perhaps my palate is shitty. I did not seed the tomatoes, and I bought the whole ones entirely by mistake. At this time, add a few chopped basil leaves and about 1/4-1/2 cup grated parmesan. I also threw in the rind, which was very good. Oh and a couple of shakes of red pepper flakes, more if you want it spicy.
Cook that for 15 minutes or so, then stick blend it to relatively smooth and cook until it’s as thick as you like it. When it’s thick enough, take it off and season with salt and pepper. Your croutons are probably done by now. You can make the grilled cheese if you’re eating grilled cheese. Serve the soup on top of a few croutons, garnished with basil chiffonade and a blob of whatever cheese you’re using. I put a sliced cherry tomato on top in an attempt to make it pretty, but it didn’t really do much. That’s all! Thanks, Gramercy Tavern. I suspect your version is much better.
For bento, I put the soup over some rice, which you can’t see here but which I think will be tasty when I eat it in a minute:
