Red Sky, Crimson Tomatoes

Last week I was considering re-naming myself the "King of the Gypsies" as during the course of that week my working life and, part of my personal life, had taken me to two cities, two towns and two villages. These locations were largely ones that were once epicentres of classic British Industry while the exception to the rule was previously famous for lead mining but had now re-invented itself as a countrified attraction for tourists.

Needless to say by the time a Friday so wet it could have fooled one into thinking it was the monsoon season rolled round, I was in need of a stiff brew and a well-earned lie down in a darkened room. However before I did that I perused the fridge and the cupboards, not to mention my recipe books, to work out what I was going to be cooking over the weekend and the upcoming working week. I also noticed I had lots of overripe tomatoes that needed using up and elected to turn these into a soup.

Tomato soup is often seen as a tired recipe and one that is over-familiar to millions. It's true to say that often the canned version is something that many people keep at the back of their cupboard in case of a food shortage. I decided to dispel that myth with a tomato soup recipe that contains more taste than your average canned soup recipe. The ingredients were as follows:

5 Tomatoes cut into cubes.
6 Spring Onions, topped, tailed and sliced finely. 
Teaspoon of Oregano.
Teaspoon of Paprika.
Teaspoon of Tomato Purée
Clove of Garlic, topped, tailed, peeled and sliced finely.
A quarter of a pint of Vegetable Stock
Fresh Basil leaves to garnish.

On the player was some music by a band that suffers from the same over-familiarity as canned Tomato Soup. The band was Status Quo. They started their career as a psychedelic act before stepping into the blues and then settling on their most well-known incarnation as purveyors of twelve-bar boogie that you can easily shake a tail feather to. Despite never breaking the United States they have managed to sell around 118 million records worldwide. 

The record on the player was their recent unplugged effort "Aquostic (Stripped Bare)". Although it was released twenty years after the "unplugged" boom of well-known artists releasing unplugged albums peaked, this record has plenty to recommend it. It also dispels the popular myth that the band have been playing the same three chords on their electric guitars since time immemorial. The album sheds new light on the likes of "Pictures of Matchstick Men" and their unique cover of "Rockin' All Over the World" among many other songs on this strong set, which shows the surprising versatility of their back catalogue. 

So the soup, the method was as follows:

1. Sweat the Tomatoes, Spring Onions, Tomato Puree, Garlic and Herbs in Olive Oil in a saucepan on a medium heat for thirty minutes so the juice of the Tomatoes stews. Make sure to stir the ingredients regularly to stop them sticking to the bottom of the saucepan. 

2. Add the Vegetable Stock and leave to simmer for twenty minutes. 

3. Take the saucepan off the heat and leave it to cool off for an hour. 

4. Blend ingredients on the highest setting on your blender. 

5. Add half the Fresh Basil to the Soup and warm the Soup through.

6. Serve in bowls and garnish the bowls with the rest of the Fresh Basil. 

I consumed the Soup the following day and found the herbs, especially the Basil, gave the soup a fresh flavour that was enriched by the overripe Tomatoes,Garlic and Spring Onions. Certainly this recipe showed that Tomato soup can be so much more than that unwanted tin lurking at the back of your cupboard or in the bargain bin at the supermarket. 

Plenty of Basil to top off this soup.