Fall for Soup!

At the first day of Indian Summer - my thoughts turn to autumn. I love fall with the crisp weather and sunshine! Pumpkin patches, apple cider, fall colors and sweaters- you know the drill. You can also tell it's fall when pumpkin lattes are back at Starbucks, and all the restaurants are featuring soup. Now that it's cooler outside, the big vegetable garden I planted is about ready to plow under .I had a perfect cool morning with sunshine to go out and enjoy being in my garden one more time before winter, harvesting the remaining vegetables. I gathered the remaining tomatoes and a giant pile of aromatic basil leaves, (who doesn't love basil!) it's easy to grow, smells delicious, and is a good add in for pasta, sauces, and soups!

Later, after spending the day at a pumpkin patch fall festival, I decided T and I needed some warm comfort food to take off the chill. We love making soup together, and since we had the last of the tomatoes and the basil, it was the perfect way to end our first fall weekend. Tomato basil soup is a healthy, easy soup to make, and nothings more comforting than making little cheese toasts for me and T to dip into our end of summer soup. Soup is a perfect food for a fall evening.   Give this one a try!

Tomato Basil Soup with Cheese Toasts

Serves 6

2          Tbsp          Olive Oil

1          Each          Small Sweet Yellow Onion, Diced

5          Cloves       Garlic, Minced

2          Tbsp          Brown Sugar

1          Cup           Dry White Wine

4          Cups         Fresh Tomatoes, Stewed (Dice the tomatoes, simmer 30 minutes, if you don't have fresh you can substitute a 28 oz can of stewed tomatoes)

10 oz   Can           Tomato Puree

1          Cup           Heavy Whipping Cream

4          oz              Fresh Basil, Chopped

2          Tsp            Salt

1/2       Tsp            Fresh Ground Pepper

1          Each          Baguette, Cut Into 1/2" Discs (about 16 pieces)

1          Cup           Mozzarella, Shredded

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a medium sauce pot, saute the onion and garlic in the olive oil until tender.  Add in the sugar and wine and cook for 5 minutes to reduce the wine and dissolve the sugar.  Add in the tomatoes, cream, salt, and pepper.  Simmer for 20 minutes.   Then puree the soup with a hand held immersion blender or in 2 batches in your blender for about 2 minutes to make velvety smooth.  Fold in the basil and serve hot, with the cheese toasts for dipping.  For the Cheese Toast, place the discs of baguette on a baking sheet lined with parchment.  Drizzle with olive oil and bake them for 10 minutes until golden.  Pull them out of the oven and top each one with a tablespoon of the mozzarella cheese.  Bake for 3 more minutes or until  the cheese is melted and bubbly.