Creamy Tomato Basil Soup with Orzo

After a very exhausting weekend of house guests and my bridal shower, I somehow found the energy to cook for the week on Sunday night. But due to my laziness exhaustion I decided to do something quick and easy - tomato soup.

My specialty, and the one dish I can consistently cook well, is tomato sauce. I learned it from my grandmother, born in Italy, who learned it from her mother, and god knows how far back it goes from there. She usually uses salt pork instead of, or along with, olive oil, and almost always adds pork chops or ribs. The result brings me back to Sunday dinners, squeezing 15+ people around a tiny kitchen table, a vocal tug-of-war between half a dozen conversations.

When I have the time and ambition, I follow her method to the letter. But when I'm trying to be healthy, cheap or quick, I modify it to a marinara, substituting the salt pork for olive oil, and adding a good deal more basil. To me the combination of tomatoes, garlic, olive oil and basil is one of the most purely, simply delicious meals I can imagine. It's so good I can drink it. And I often do skip the pasta and eat the sauce just as a soup, which is what I decided to do here, adding heavy cream and orzo for some heartiness.

Creamy Tomato Basil Soup with Orzo

Source:

My grandmother, Clotilda McCarthy

Yield:

15 cups of soup, or 120 ounces

Enough for 7 meals + 1 snack

Ingredients

4 tbsp. olive oil

1-2 cloves garlic, depending on size and taste

112 oz. crushed tomatoes (four 28-oz cans)

5-6 leaves basil

salt and pepper, to taste

8 oz. heavy cream

Equipment

Heavy-bottomed sauce pan, preferably enameled cast-iron, with lid

Any instruments to thinly shave the garlic and chiffonade the basil

Directions

Heat 4 tablespoons of olive oil in a heavy-bottomed sauce pan.

Depending on the size of the pan, you may need to use more or less than 4 tablespoons, the main goal being to coat the bottom of the pan fairly well.

While it's heating up, shave garlic paper thin, almost clear. I use a microplane grater, that seems to get it thin enough even for me. You don't want to be chomping on any garlic.

When the oil is hot (hot enough that a crumb of garlic sizzles when dropped in), add the garlic and brown. Get the tomatoes ready to add quickly.

The second you see the slightest browning in the garlic, add the tomatoes. If you start opening cans or answering a phone at this point, the garlic will burn and you'll have to start over. 

Turn the heat up to medium-high until bubbles start to break the surface, then turn down to low. Meanwhile, chiffonade the basil leaves (slice them into thin ribbons).

The best way to do this is to first stack them and roll them tightly.

Then slice from one end to the other, close together.

The slices will fall into thin ribbons, the perfect size and shape for a sauce or soup like this.

Add the basil to the tomatoes and stir in.

Add salt and pepper to taste and continue cooking until the oil has completely merged with the tomatoes. 

At this point stir in the heavy cream until the color is rosy pink and the flavor is warm and creamy.

Adding the orzo is optional, and you can either cook it right in the sauce or cook it separately, drain well and then add to the sauce. 

This was tasty and easy, even for my near comatose post-shower state. Best of all it served as lunch and dinner for the two of us through the end of the week. You can forget the orzo and just pour the sauce over macaroni, or actually do a proper soup and add a bit of chicken broth with the tomatoes. I'll probably try it that way next time as well.