The BEST Tomato Soup
Make The BEST Tomato Soup tonight: cozy, silky, and fast. The BEST Tomato Soup brings restaurant flavor to your kitchen.
Ingredients
- 4 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 medium onion, (chopped (about 1 cup))
- 2 cloves garlic, (minced (about 2 teaspoons))
- 2 cans (28 ounces each) whole tomatoes packed in juice
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- 3 slices large sandwich bread, (crusts removed and cut into 1-inch pieces)
- 2 cups chicken stock
Instructions
Step 1: Sauté the aromatics
Warm the olive oil in a large, heavy pot and add the chopped onion and minced garlic. Cook, stirring frequently, until the onion is translucent and softened, about three to five minutes—soft, glossy onion strands and tiny golden garlic flecks should dominate the pot, fragrant and slightly shimmering from the oil.
Step 2: Add and break down the tomatoes
Pour in the whole canned tomatoes with their juice and begin to crush and fold them into the aromatics. Use a potato masher (or sturdy utensil) to press until no piece larger than about two inches remains, producing a chunky, pulpy tomato mass with visible seeds, skins and bright red juice pooling at the edges.
Step 3: Enrich with sugar and bread, then simmer briefly
Stir in the brown sugar and scatter the bread pieces into the tomato mix, stirring to saturate the cubes so they swell and begin to dissolve into the stew. Bring briefly to a boil, stirring occasionally, until the bread is fully saturated and starting to break down—a thick, ragged, rustic slurry of tomato and softened bread. Reduce heat to medium so the mixture holds together but is still hot and cohesive.
Step 4: Puree until lusciously smooth
Ladle half of the hot tomato-bread mixture into a blender, add a tablespoon of olive oil, and process until utterly smooth and creamy; repeat with the remaining half and combine. The result should be a glossy, velvety orange-red soup with no coarse bread lumps and a silky sheen from the added oil.
Step 5: Adjust body with stock
Return the blended soup to the pot and stir in the chicken stock, adding enough to reach your desired pouring consistency. The mixture should transform from thick puree to a cohesive, spoonable soup—still rich, but flowing freely with a satiny surface and tiny suspended droplets of oil.
Step 6: Finish and serve warm
Taste and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper until balanced. Ladle into serving bowls and garnish as you like—the classic finish is a scattering of toasted bread croutons and a light grating of cheese that will soften on contact with the hot soup.
Notes
- Use good-quality canned tomatoes for the best base flavor.
- Taste and adjust salt after blending; flavors meld and change slightly.
- If too thick after chilling, thin with stock when reheating.
- To keep it vegetarian, swap chicken stock for vegetable stock.
- Toast bread or croutons separately for maximum crunch when serving.