Summer Tomato Soup, all year

Much of what I’ve learned in the kitchen comes from my mom, Terry. She taught me how to eat, shop, cook, and clean (among so much else), so I am thrilled to share her seasonal wisdom about putting up summer tomatoes, along with her amazing tomato soup recipe.

Here is an excerpt mom’s writing on tomatoes. She references “Early Girl” tomatoes, but feel free to use any locally grown tomato that has good flavor. It’s best to use pesticide-free tomatoes if you can get them, especially if trying her techniques of freezing them whole…

“Every year” my mom wrote in her own post about putting up tomatoes, “I make sure I get enough high-summer, dry farmed Early Girl tomatoes processed, to last me through the winter. There is nothing better than a pot of tomato soup that tastes like summer, or making a sauce and using local, summer tomatoes in it. Compared to the kind you get in a can; they are worth the effort.”

Two ways to process tomatoes

• Puree: “I cook the tomatoes whole with the skins on, because SO much of the flavor resides in the skins, and then I strain them through a food mill. You get astounding flavor this way. The final puree I put in containers and freeze, but they can also be canned.”

• Whole Frozen: “The other thing I will do is throw whole, unwashed, fresh (not cooked) tomatoes into gallon zip bags and freeze them. This technique works best with thick skinned tomatoes, like the dry farmed Early Girls. Heirlooms don’t work well as they have higher water content and thinner skins. Freeze a denser tomato, though, and when I need a couple for a recipe, I just pull them from the bag, run under warm water to peel, and chop them up. Very handy!”

These preserved tomatoes can be used in many ways. One is in the creation of a steaming bowl of mom’s tomato soup…

Mama Terry’s Tomato Soup

Yield: 6 servings

Ingredients

2 lbs. ripe (or frozen as described above), flavorful summer tomatoes OR 1 quart pureed or chopped tomatoes (see “how to peel fresh tomatoes” below)
2 tsp. butter
1 medium yellow onion, coarsely chopped
1 stalk celery, coarsely chopped
2 Tbsp. raw white rice
1 quart chicken or vegetable broth
salt & freshly ground pepper to taste
(optional) ¼ - ½ cup heavy cream, to taste
chopped chives (for garnish)

To make soup

1. Melt the butter in heavy saucepan.

2. Add onion and celery, stir and cover. Cook over medium heat, checking and stirring every minute or two, until onion becomes translucent and celery softens. Do not brown vegetables.

3. Add rice, stir to incorporate, and cook for 1 minute.

4. Add tomatoes and cook for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Tomatoes will soften and break apart.

5. Add broth, bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer and cook about 10 more minutes.

6. Add salt and freshly ground pepper to taste. You may not need much salt if using store-bought broth.

7. Transfer to blender in batches, (or use a hand-held immersion blender) and process until smooth.

8. Re-heat, taste for salt and pepper, and adjust thickness with more broth if necessary.

Optional: For a rich creamier flavor , bring soup to a simmer and stir in heavy cream right before serving. Do not boil after adding the cream, as this will curdle the soup.
Serve topped with chopped chives.

How to peel fresh tomatoes
Remove the stem and score an “x” into the base of the tomato. Place the  tomatoes in a pot of boiling water until the skins loosen a bit (about 15 seconds). Slice tomatoes in half and squeeze out the seeds over a strainer placed in a bowl, to catch the juices. Set aside the tomatoes and juices, and discard seeds.