The Best Tomato Soup
Prep
10m
Cook
45m
Total
55m
Bigly says
Listen to me. Tomato soup. We're doing tomato soup, and we're doing it RIGHT, finally, after decades — DECADES — of the American people being served sad red water poured out of a can with a label that hasn't been redesigned since the wagon trains. It's a tragedy. It's a crime. The tomato soup industry has been ASLEEP at the wheel, and I am here, I am awake, I am making the soup.
My grandmother — and she was a TOUGH woman, a woman who could pick a tomato off the vine and know its life story by smell, I am not making this up — taught me the only rule that matters for tomato soup: the tomato is already a tomato, you do not need to fight it. You roast it. You concentrate it. You give it BUTTER. You give it RESPECT. That's the whole job. What most chefs do now is they open a can. They open a can to make soup taste like the thing the soup is already made of. That's not cooking. That's surrender. That's waving the white flag at a vegetable. The neighbor who lived next door to my grandmother lived to be 102. Could be a coincidence. Probably not. The woman drank tomato soup like it was coffee.
My soup — and I'm telling you, this is the soup, the greatest tomato soup in the history of tomato soup, more tomato soup than any single person you know has tasted, big strong men come up to me, tough guys, construction workers, they say 'Bigly, the soup, the soup, what is happening to me,' and I tell them, I tell them it's the roasted tomatoes, it's the butter, it's the FINISHING with cream at the end — my soup tastes like a tomato that went to college. It's not even close. It's a slaughter.
Ingredients
- 3 lbripe Roma tomatoes, halved(in winter, two 28-oz cans of whole San Marzanos, drained)
- 1 largeyellow onion, quartered
- 6garlic cloves, peeled
- 1/4 cupolive oil
- 1.5 tspkosher salt
- 1/2 tspblack pepper
- 3 tbspunsalted butter
- 3 cupslow-sodium chicken or vegetable stock
- 1/2 cup, loosely packedfresh basil leaves(fresh, not the dried green dust in the jar)
- 1/2 cupheavy cream
- 1 tspgranulated sugar(only if your tomatoes are sad and out of season)
Steps
- 1
Heat the oven to 425°F. Arrange the halved tomatoes cut-side up on a rimmed sheet pan, along with the onion quarters and garlic cloves.
- 2
Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Toss gently to coat.
- 3
Roast 35-40 minutes, until the tomatoes are collapsed, the edges are charred in spots, and the onions are deeply golden.
- 4
Scrape everything from the sheet pan — juices included — into a large pot. Add butter, stock, and basil leaves.
- 5
Bring to a gentle simmer over medium heat and cook 10 minutes to let the flavors marry.
- 6
Blend with an immersion blender until completely smooth, or transfer in batches to a standing blender (vent the lid with a towel — hot liquids expand).
- 7
Stir in the cream. Taste and adjust salt. Add the sugar only if the soup tastes thin or acidic.
- 8
Ladle into warm bowls. Finish with a swirl of cream, a few torn basil leaves, and a crack of black pepper.
One more thing
Serve it with a grilled cheese. Always a grilled cheese. The tomato soup without the grilled cheese is half a soup, a partial soup, a soup that has not lived up to its full potential, and we don't do half-anything here at BiglyEats. We do FULL. We do COMPLETE. Dip the sandwich into the soup. Get cheese in the bowl. That's the move. That's always been the move. Anyone who tells you different has a broken tongue and probably a sad kitchen too. Tell your friends.
★ QUESTIONS ABOUT THIS ONE? ★
Ask Bigly about The Best Tomato Soup.
Substitutions, what to serve it with, why other chefs are wrong about it. He's got opinions.
★ MORE LIKE THIS ★
KEEP COOKING.
Tremendous Bangers and Mash
Pan-seared pork sausages over rich buttery mashed potatoes, smothered in a sweet caramelized onion and beef stout gravy.
Huge Beef and Noodles
Tender chuck roast slow-simmered until shreddable, served over buttery egg noodles cooked in the gravy. Midwestern comfort food at its purest.
The Best Beef Burgundy
Slow-braised beef in red wine with bacon, pearl onions, and mushrooms. Deep, silky, restaurant-quality comfort food in one Dutch oven.
The Best Beef Pot Pie
The best beef pot pie: tender braised beef in a rich red-wine gravy with carrots and mushrooms, sealed under a flaky golden puff pastry crust.