Roasted Tomato and Red Pepper Soup

Line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil and preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Pull the whole tomatoes out of the can and reserve their liquid, placing the tomatoes on the cookie sheet. Roughly chop the fresh tomatoes and add them as well. Drizzle with olive oil and salt and pepper them. Roast for about 20 minutes or until they start to fall apart and look soft.

While the tomatoes are roasting, chop the garlic, onion, celery, carrots and habanero. I have also used 2 serrano peppers in place of the habanero, but if you don’t like a lot of heat, you can skip them completely. Sauté the vegetables in olive oil until they start to soften in a large stock pot.

When the tomatoes are done, pull them out and turn the oven to broil. Set the red peppers directly on the oven rack. You may want to place a cookie sheet underneath them to prevent drips, and check occasionally, rolling peppers from one side to the other until the skin is completely blackened. When they are done, pull them out of the oven and throw into a paper or plastic bag and let sit for several minutes. The trapped heat and moisture from the steam will soften the skin and allow it to be easily peeled off the flesh of the pepper.

Add the stock, reserved tomato juice and brewed coffee to the vegetables. Let simmer for about 20 to 30 or so minutes while the peppers roast and the vegetables soften.

The red peppers will have flattened and be soft. The tops should pull right out with the majority of the seeds, and you can now peel the blackened skin off and remove any extra seeds.

Add the peppers and the simmering soup in batches to a blender and blend until smooth. Return pureed soup to the pot and slowly add the cream. I like to add a spoonful of soup to the cream first to avoid dumping cold cream into the hot soup. If the soup is too thick for your liking, add a little extra stock to the mixture.

Throw in the chopped fresh basil and simmer for about another 10 minutes. Season with additional salt and pepper.

If your tomatoes are not particularly flavorful, add the tablespoons of tomato paste to add extra depth.