It’s official; the dark half of the year has arrived. Ushered in on Halloween night, we turned our clocks back one hour, night fall by 5pm today. I’m in the kitchen up to no good: I’m in the mood for some serious comfort. I think the only time I’ve ever had tomato soup in the past it’s always been accompanied by a greasy delicious grilled cheese. Tonight I’ll skip the bread however and bread some mini Mozzarella (well Bocaccini because I couldn’t find mini mozarella balls at the shops) balls and deep fry them. They’ll get all hot and gooey and melt into the soup. Pure decadence.

To begin, we’ll add all the soup ingredients into a sheet pan. They’ll roast and mingle for tons of flavour.

You Will Need:

2 lbs Tomatoes (I used vine tomatoes) chopped

1 red onion chopped

2 garlic bulbs – chop the tops off

4-5 sprigs of fresh Thyme

3 Tbsp Olive Oil

3 cups of Vegetable Stock

2 Tbsp Balsamic Vinegar

Salt and Pepper

1/4 cup of Heavy cream or Creme Fraiche

2 Tbsp Tomato Paste

Add all the ingredients (up until Salt and Pepper) into a large pan and grill in an oven at 400 degrees for 30 – 40 minutes.

Squeez the garlic bulb to release the roasted cloves and add the tomato paste and broth into a deep pot with all the pan grilled ingredients.

Cook on high heat for about 10 minutes to make sure everything is soft and ready to blend. Using a hand blender , blend until smooth then add creme fraiche and blend a little more. Taste for flavour and add more salt or any spices you may think you’d like. I added a dash of garlic and onion powder.

Set soup aside and make the Mozza Balls!

Take 3 small bowls and add flour to one, 1 egg to the second and bread crumbs to the 3rd bowl.

Take the Mozzarella or Bocaccini cheese and dip them in the Flour, then the egg followed by the breadcrumbs.

In order to have a bit more control while frying them, I skewered the cheese balls with wooden skewers, then place cooking oil into a pot so that it was deep and dropped the balls into the hot oil.

Deep fry just until the bread crumbs are getting golden brown. You may notice the cheese melting out of it’s crusty encasing, this means it’s time to pull them out of the oil quickly. Lay them on paper towel for a few seconds to absorb the oil then drop them into your soup.

The cheese really balances the natural acidity tomato soup has. This is a good one.

Bon appetit!

Love,

Jennifer