Roasted Tomato And Bacon Soup.

Growing up in the Caribbean it was common or ‘tradition’ that Saturday was our designated soup day, so I grew up with a natural affection for soups. With the brutal winters we get in Canada (exaggerated in NON-Canadian media) you’ll find that a comforting bowl of soup goes beyond “Saturday’s” now in our household. Here’s one with two of my favorite ingredients, roasted tomatoes and BACON!

Ingredients

6 large tomatoes
2 scallions
2 large cloves garlic
4 cups chicken broth
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
2 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 lb bacon
2 tablespoon chopped parsley
1/2 teaspoon pimenton (hot smoked paprika)
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 birds eye pepper (optional – any hot pepper)

*Preheat your oven @ 400 F

• Cut the tomatoes into 1/4 ‘s and remove the stems and hard area just below the stem. Place on a baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil, salt and black pepper (toss) and place on the middle rack in the oven. Roast for 40 mins.
• Heat your soup pot on a medium heat and fry off your bacon (cut into small pieces). Remove fried/crisp bacon and set on paper towels. Remove most of the bacon fat – but leave back about 2 tablespoons in the pot.
• Turn the heat down to low and add the diced garlic and chopped scallions. Cook for 3 mins on low heat then add the parsley and finely chopped birds eye pepper. You can leave out the pepper if you like, use pepper flakes or use any hot pepper you like/have. Remember to not use any of the pepper seeds unless you want it really spicy. Cook for another 2 minutes
• Add the pimenton (smoked paprika) and stir well.

• The roasted tomatoes can now join the fun. Turn the heat up, stir… add the broth and bring to a boil. Since I salted the tomatoes for roasting, used broth loaded with sodium and the bacon was salted, I didn’t add any further salt, but do taste near the end and adjust accordingly. After it comes to a boil, reduce to a simmer and let it go for about 15-20 minutes.
• If you find that you have large pieces of tomato, you can use your spoon to crush them. I like this soup a bit rustic so I don’t puree it, but the choice is yours.
• You can add the pieces of bacon to the pot as the soup simmers or top the soup as you serve it with the bacon pieces. Personally I used half in the soup and half when serving. ENJOY!