Roasted Tomato Bread Soup

I make this recipe at least twice every year during my abundant harvest of tomatoes from my garden.  It is SO good and my family loves it!  It makes the entire house smell delightful.  If you don't have a garden, go out to a farmer's market and load up on some fresh garden tomatoes to make this soup today.  It is sure to please!

Ingredients:

15 medium sized tomatoes of any variety, cored and roughly chopped

1 pint grape/cherry tomatoes

1 yellow onion, peeled and roughly chopped

1 cup pitted kalamata olives

2 leeks, cleaned and roughly cut

1 shallot, peeled and chopped

2 small/medium heads garlic (cut tops off of entire head)

olive oil

salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

1/2 loaf rustic bread

4 cups vegetable stock (low sodium)

1 bunch basil, roughly chopped

Directions:

Preheat oven to 275.  

Place all vegetables on a rimmed baking sheet.  Do not overlap vegetables (try to place in a single layer).  Generously drizzle olive oil over the mix.  Season with salt and pepper.  Bake for 3-4 hours (your house will smell AMAZING!).  Vegetables should look nicely roasted, browned and carmely.

Once you feel vegetables are roasted, remove from oven and squeeze all the garlic from the skins.  Place all vegetables in the blender/food processor and pulse for 7-10 seconds.  Leave the mix chunky.  Put the roasted tomato soup in a large stock pot with the vegetable broth.  Bring to a simmer and add basil.  Adjust amount of stock to your taste if needed.  Let soup simmer for 15 minutes.  

Place bread in a 300 degree oven for 10 minutes to dry it out.  Place soup in bowls and top with torn bread pieces and some Parmesan cheese (optional).  Serve with a tossed green salad for a complete meal.  

Recipe adapted from: http://blog.tracyporter.com/eating-gathering/tracy-porter-rustic-roasted-tomato-bread-soup