Roast Tomato Soup with Grilled Cheddar Cheese and Caramelized Red Onion Sandwich.

I bring you this dish on a cold, blustery day in Cornwall but, while it warms me up nicely as I take a scoop from my bowl and hear the chilly, breeze blowing outside, if you are fortunate enough to be having a sunnier and warmer 1st of June than myself then please still feel free to devour this lovely soup and enjoy it's vibrant, refreshing, summery flavours. 

Never will I eat tomato soup without a grilled cheese again. The crisp, golden bread encasing an ocean of melted cheddar and sweet, caramelized red onions is the perfect accompaniment to dunk into this wonderful soup and quite frankly the perfect food to eat at any moment when hunger strikes; breakfast, dinner, tea... and again for dessert. It is scrumptious! Taking the typical cheese toastie I've always had growing up, the American's thought why not go one better and smother this in butter and fry it until crunchy and glorious? Boy am I glad they did. Add in a yummy roast tomato soup drizzled with pesto oil, scattered with molten mozzarella and topped with a vine of sweet, juicy cherry tomatoes and you've got yourself a pretty damn delicious dinner.

Ingredients

Makes 4 BIG bowls of soup and 4 gorgeous grilled cheeses.

For the Roast Tomato Soup:

12 salad tomatoes, halved

A pinch of caster sugar

6 tbsp. olive oil plus extra to drizzle

50g unsalted butter

2 each of onions, carrots and garlic cloves, chopped fairly small

2 tbsp. tomato puree

400g tin of chopped tomatoes

1 bay leaf

1 basil sprig plus 12 leaves to prepare the basil oil

1 litre vegetable stock

4 clusters of vine-ripened cherry tomatoes

12 mini mozzarella balls/pearls

For the Grilled Cheddar Cheese and Caramelized Red Onion Sandwiches:

1 large red onion, sliced

1 tsp. olive oil

A good sprinkling of dark brown sugar

A good glug of balsamic vinegar

8 slices of thick white bread

A hefty pile of grated mature cheddar cheese

Unsalted butter, softened

Method

1.    Preheat the oven to 180°C. Place the salad tomatoes, cut-side up, onto a baking tray and sprinkle with sugar, drizzle with olive oil and season. Roast for 40 minutes until nice and softened.

2.    Meanwhile, heat the butter and 1 tbsp. olive oil in a pan over a medium heat and cook the onion, carrot and garlic, stirring for 5 minutes until softened. Add the tinned tomatoes, tomato puree, bay leaf, basil sprig, vegetable stock, roasted salad tomatoes and any cooking juices. Bring to the boil and then reduce the heat to low and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 20-25 minutes until the vegetables are lovely and tender.

4.    Discard the basil sprig, cool slightly and then blend the soup in batches. Return to the saucepan and cook over a low heat, stirring until warmed through. 

5.   While you warm through the soup, take your vine ripened cherry tomatoes, place them into a baking dish, drizzle lightly with olive oil and roast in the oven for about 15-20 minutes until softened and lightly charred.

6.   Next, place 5 tbsp. olive oil into a blender with 12 large basil leaves and blitz to make your basil oil. 

7.   You can now prepare your grilled cheese sandwiches. I apologize for the vagueness of my ingredients list here but, this is because with a grilled cheese you can't really go wrong with how you prepare it; what ingredients you put in it or how much of each ingredient you use. It's entirely up to you! To prepare my caramelized red onion I add the sliced red onion to a saucepan, fry it until softened in 1 tsp. olive oil, then add a sprinkling of dark brown sugar, stirring until the onion becomes caramelized, add in a splash of balsamic vinegar and continue to cook until the onion is lovely, glossy and sticky.

8.   I then like to take two pieces of chunky, white tiger bread, scatter one piece with a large pile of grated mature cheddar cheese (please feel free to use whatever cheese you like though e.g. goats cheese, edam, swiss cheese, blue cheese and as much as you like!), scatter on some caramelized red onions, place the other round of bread on top and squash down a little to help the sandwich hold together when you're flipping it in the pan. 

9.   Next, heat a drizzle of olive oil in a frying pan over a medium heat, spread a layer of butter on top of your sandwich and place it butter side down into the hot frying pan, leaving to fry for a few minutes until lovely, crisp and golden. Once ready to flip, spread another layer of butter on the uncooked side of the sandwich and flip, leaving for a few minutes again until crunchy and bronze. Grate a little more cheese on the top side and keep flipping until both sides are bronze and crunchy and the cheese in the center is completely melted.  

10.  Now scoop the warm soup into bowls, place three mozzarella balls into each and allow to melt in the hot soup, drizzle with a swirl of basil oil and pop a vine of the roasted cherry tomatoes on top. Finally, cut your crunchy grilled cheese in half and watch as a waterfall of golden cheese oozes out. Last of all, whether your snuggled up on your sofa in a blanket or sunbathing outside on a deckchair, sit back and enjoy!

                              

                                                     

Summer Vegetable Pizza Pie.

I always find that whenever I do any baking, I tend to go straight to the internet to find new recipes to try even though I've got a huge stack of delicious cookbooks in my bedroom so, today I decided to make my first recipe out of my Higgidy Cookbook and I'm very glad I did as this pizza pie was lovely. It is very similar to a quiche so, perfect to serve alongside some salad in the summer or to even take as a yummy snack for a picnic. I literally fell in love with the croustade pastry, it is gorgeous and tastes like a rich, buttery cheese scone. Yum! The filling was also very tasty and quirky and tasted very fresh and summery with all of the summery vegetables and the addition of the lemon zest. 

I really loved this pizza pie and it was actually really easy to make too which is good as pastry dishes can often be quite faffy and require lots of skill and time to make them look neat. I love the rustic look of this pizza pie which, is perfect for me as I have always been pretty terrible at shaping pastry and haven't quite managed to make any gourmet looking quiches or pies in all my ten or so years of baking yet but, I didn't think this pizza pie looked too shabby. 

Has anyone else stumbled upon any delicious recipes recently in their mound of long forgotten about cookbooks? 

Recipe

For the Savoury Croustade Pastry:

200g plain flour, plus a little for dusting

A generous pinch of salt

75g unsalted butter, well chilled and cut into small cubes

50g mature Cheddar cheese, finely grated

1 medium egg, beaten

2-3 tbsp. ice-cold water

For the Filling:

A knob of butter

3 garlic cloves, roughly chopped

1 courgette, cut into discs and then halved or quartered to make small chunks

4 large spring onions, cut into 1.5cm slices on an angle

75g asparagus, chop each asparagus spear into three

250g full-fat cream cheese

1 medium egg

Zest of 1 lemon

2 tbsp. chopped fresh flat leaf parsley

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the Topping:

1 ball buffalo mozzarella, torn

A little beaten egg, for brushing and glazing

Finely grated zest 1/2 lemon

Method

1. Start by making the savoury croustade pastry. Sift the flour and salt into a large bowl, add the butter and rub in with your fingertips until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add the grated cheddar and stir until the cheese is just mixed in. Add the beaten egg and a few splashes of ice cold water and mix just enough to bring the pastry together. Turn out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead lightly until smooth. Try not to handle too much or the fat will get warm and the pastry may turn out tough and chewy. Wrap in clingfilm and chill for 30-60 minutes before use.

2. Now prepare the pizza pie filling. Melt the butter in a large frying pan. When it's sizzling throw in the garlic, courgettes and asparagus and fry over a high heat for 2 minutes. Add the spring onions and fry for a further 4 minutes or until the veg is beginning to steam but, hasn't lost it's vibrant colour. Now set aside to cool.

3. Beat the egg in a medium bowl and then beat in the cream cheese until fully incorporated. Season with black pepper. Add two-thirds of the cooled vegetables, the lemon zest and chopped parsley and stir to combine. Preheat the oven to 200°C. 

4. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the pastry into a 30cm circle about 3mm thick. Transfer to a large baking sheet (the pastry may hang over the sides). Spoon the creamy mixture onto the pastry, leaving a border of about 5cm all the way round the edge. Sprinkle over a third of the torn mozzarella and a good grating of black pepper and a pinch of salt. Top with the remaining vegetables and mozzarella and turn up the excess pastry around the edges of the filling.

5. Brush any exposed pastry with beaten egg and bake for about 25 minutes or until the pastry is golden and crisp. Finally, remove from the oven and allow to sit for 5-10 minutes before slicing into wedges and serving.