Today is the 11th of April, we should be well into the joys of spring here in Manchester, although as with most seasons, it comes with a large side order of rain.
This pseudo-spring that I find myself in has given me the taste for a bit of soup.
So I began scouring my book shelf for a suitable recipe to satisfy me, I came across my copy of Bill's Food by Bill Granger.
I have only cooked a handful of recipes from this book and have aways found them to be to my taste; his food is simple and straight forward, some may say a little conservative, but always delicious.
With my mind set on a soup of the roasted tomato and fennel variety I set out to gather my ingredients, I say gather, I mean go to the green grocers at the end of my road. I was in luck, vine tomatoes were on special offer, I was able to purchase 3lbs for £2.10. The signs looked good. The fennel on the other hand was quite expensive, 1 medium sized bulb costing £2.15. I don't really mind as its a local shop (for local people) and I do feel better going there than to a large chain supermarket.
The soup.
You will need,
3lb vine-ripened tomatoes
2 garlic cloves, peeled
1 small carrot, finely sliced
1/2 small fennel bulb, finely sliced
1-3 Red chilies finely sliced
60ml extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
Preheat the oven to 200 (400F/Gas 6). place tomatoes, garlic, carrot and fennel in a roasting tin. Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Cover with foil and bake for 1 hour 30 minutes.
After 1 hour 30 minutes, I removed the foil and roasted them for another 30 minutes.
Finally,transfer the roasted vegetables to a food processor, failing that I used a hand blender.
Serve in a bowl.
Soup(erb).
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