Tomatoes = Summer!

The farmer's markets are bursting with tasty tomatoes this time of year, and they really never taste this good any other time of year.  Heirloom tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, early girls, everything!!!  So naturally I started looking for recipes that have tomatoes and basil :)

I haven't made a soup in a while because it just takes a long time to chop all the ingredients and simmer it on the stove.  But I was feeling industrious this weekend, so it was a lazy afternoon filled with cooking.

This is the second time I've borrowed 'a girl and her greens' from the library, but it is seriously a great book featuring veggies (though not all the recipes are vegetarian).  This is totally my style -- eat lots of veggies and not a lot of meat, but the meat that we do eat is sustainable and locally raised.

So this weekend's Sunday cooking project is from 'a girl and her greens', a soup called Ribollita (meaning re-boiled in Italian).  It is apparently a classic Tuscan soup similar to a minestrone, but with stale bread in it.  Now, we didn't have any stale bread or beans, so it's just a very nice soup :)

It smelled so good and tasted so full of flavor that G thought I had used chicken broth!!  It's actually vegan!

Adapted from 'a girl and her greens':

Summery Ribollita

6 medium garlic cloves: 4 minced, and 2 thinly sliced
[small handful marjoram leaves] <--- omitted because we don't have any
1/2 c olive oil + 3 tbsp
1 med/large onion, 1/2 finely diced and the other 1/2 diced
1 large carrot, 1/2 finely diced and the other 1/2 diced
4 celery stalks, 1/2 finely diced and the other 1/2 diced
1 bunch swiss chard, stems finely diced, and leaves cut into strips/pieces
2 teaspoons salt
-3 dried pequin chiles] <-- omitted
2 lb cherry tomatoes
[2.5 cups beans] <-- omitted
[1/2 lb stale rustic bread] <-- omitted

 Heat 1/2 cup of oil in a large pot over medium high high, put in onion, carrot, celery, chard stems, 1 tsp salt.  Cook and stir often for 15 mins.  [Melody addition: 2 bay leaves -- I think this is what makes soups taste distinctly Italian].  Put in the minced garlic (and marjoram and chilis if you have it).  Reduce heat to medium low, cook for another 30 mins or so until the veggies are tender and sweet.  Stir to prevent burning!

[Melody's lazy shortcut] Dump in the swiss chard leaves and stir in with the other veggies, put the lid on.  The actual recipe says to boil the leaves until wilted and then drain and chop.

Put the 3 tbsp oil + sliced garlic into another pan/pot and heat until light golden brown, then dump in the cherry tomatoes and 1 tsp salt.  Cover and lower the heat and stir a couple of times until the tomatoes burst (about 10 mins).  Now it says to pass the tomatoes through a food mill, but I don't have one so I just used my trusty immersion blender (one of the most awesome kitchen gadgets ever!!)

Pour the tomato mixture into the veggie pot, and wash out the tomato pot with some water and pour that into the veggie pot as well.  Add water to the veggie pot until you're satisfied with the consistency of the soup.  Heat until warmed, and add salt and pepper to taste.