Saturday, November 1, 2008

Cream of Tomato Soup in Puff Pastry

I knew I wanted to make a soup this week so I went through the ones Matt had marked in Soup's On!: 75 Soul-Satisfying Recipes from Your Favorite Chefs & choose the Cream of Tomato Soup from Philippe Jeanty (of Bistro Jeanty in Napa). I planned on just making the soup & serving it with grilled cheese sandwiches but it looked so pretty in the book topped with puff pastry that I had to try it that way.
Cream of Tomato Soup with Puff Pastry
This is one soup that is not going to help your diet, with its 6 tablespoons of butter & 2 cups of heavy cream topped off with buttery pastry, but its probably one of the best tomato soups I've ever had. We found the recipe as written lacked a little something so Matt suggested adding some sherry to it & that made all the difference, suddenly the soup just came to life. One bowl of this soup topped with pastry is really quite filling & worked perfectly as a meal for us. Next time we'd like to add some lobster or lump crab meat to it, now there would be a decadent bowl of soup!

Cream of Tomato Soup in Puff Pastry

6 T unsalted butter
1 medium onion, sliced
3 cloves garlic, peeled
3/4 t whole black peppercorns
1/2 t dried thyme
1 bay leaf
2 T tomato paste
1 1/4 lb ripe tomatoes, cored & quartered (so not seed them)
2 c heavy cream
2 T sherry
salt
pepper
1 lb puff pastry sheets
1 egg

Melt the 4 T of butter in a large soup pot over medium-low heat. Add the onion, garlic, peppercorns, thyme & bay leaf. Cover & cook for 5 minutes, do not let the onions get brown. Add the tomato paste & stir for a minute. Add the tomatoes & 1/2 c water. Simmer, uncovered, over low heat until the tomatoes & onions are very soft & starting to break down about 30 - 40 minutes.

Purée the mixture using either a food mill or blender. If you are using a blender, strain the mixture after blending to remove any seeds & larger bits. Return puréed soup to the pot. Add the cream, 2 T of butter and sherry plus salt & pepper to taste (we found it needed quite a bit of salt). Bring to a simmer & then remove from heat. Allow to cool at least 2 hours before the next step.
IMG_8417
Preheat oven to 450 F. Roll out your pastry dough to 1/4-inch thick. Cut out 4 circles slightly larger than you serving bowls or ramekins. Divide the soup between the four bowls. In a small bowl beat the egg. Brush the beaten egg on the pastry circles. Place the pastry, egg side down, on each bowl pulling a little to make it taut. Gently brush the top of the pastry with more egg being careful not to push it into the soup. Place the bowls on a baking sheet & then into the oven. Bake for 10 - 15 minutes until the pastry is puffed & golden (don't open your oven too early or the pastry might fall.)

Serves 4

We only ate two servings of the soup the first night with the pastry. I had a second bowl for lunch the next day just with a slice of bread & it was just as good without the pastry shell.

12 comments:

Stacey Snacks said...

Beautiful.
Puff pastry makes everything look and taste wonderful.

Unknown said...

Wow, this looks very yum. I am going to have to figure out how to do that gluten free.

Anonymous said...

I agree with Karen...someone has to let the world know about a gluten free puff pastry! There are so many things I end up missing!

Alicia Foodycat said...

Another beautiful presentation! I like the addition of the sherry, but I will sometimes add some grated orange zest to a tomato soup that is missing something.

Lori said...

That looks good and buttery! Hmm. I guess once ina while is good. Too many "once in a whiles" for me though.

Anonymous said...

That looks so delicate and delicious. Thank you for posting!

Peter M said...

This is the classiest tomato soup I've seen in ages...one could call it a bisque too.

The puff pastry top is a fine touch.

Venessa said...

I love your blog! I just had to comment that I have had this at Bistro Jeanty and it was amazing. Now I want to try it at home.

PG said...

Very cool. Just when you think it'll be a pot pie, you break through the puff pastry to find soup. I want to try this.

grace said...

well this is a great idea, and that's all there is to it. any method for puff pastry consumption is a keeper in my book. :)

Deborah said...

I have a food magazine that had several versions of individual pot pies topped with puff pastry, and I've been wanting to try it ever since. This looks even better!

PG said...

I'm trying this out with some squash soup tonight.

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