Amazing Tomato Soup

I love soup for lunch when the weather gets cooler, which tends to happen early in Boston. Last week I made tomato soup very loosely based on a recipe from Food & Wine. This is a quick soup and is ready in less than an hour from start to finish. It makes four to five servings as written.

Here’s a tip—you don’t need to peel your garlic cloves before you put them through your press. In fact if you don’t peel them, your press will be a lot easier to clean up.

Finally, I almost never add salt and pepper while cooking something. I prefer to add them at the table.

Ingredients:

1 T butter
1 T olive oil
1 small or ½ medium white onion, finely diced
2 cloves garlic, put through a press
2 t smoked paprika (it makes a difference to the taste so get smoked paprika)
1 28-ounce can diced tomatoes (I prefer fire roasted tomatoes)
3 T tomato paste
1 ½ C water
1/3 C light cream
1 sprig of thyme until the thyme plant dies, then use about ½ t dried thyme
1 bay leaf

Directions:

1. Melt the butter and oil together in a pan large enough to hold all the ingredients.
2. Add the finely diced onion and garlic to the pan and sauté until tender and translucent, about five minutes.
3. Add the paprika and stir well.
4. Add the tomatoes with their juice, the tomato paste, the water, the thyme and bay leaf.
5. Stir well and simmer for about 15 to 30 minutes.
6. Remove from heat and stir in the cream.
7. Enjoy!