A delicious take on sandwiches dipped into soup, here featuring burnished cheese toasts
Diana Henry The Telegraph's award-winning cookery writer
Diana Henry is the Telegraph’s much-loved cookery writer. She shares recipes each week, for everything from speedy family dinners to special menus that friends will remember for months. She is also a regular broadcaster on BBC Radio 4, and her journalism and recipe books, including Simple and How to Eat a Peach, are multi-award-winning. A mother of two sons, Diana can satisfy even the fussiest of eaters.
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The simplest soup. Put everything in a roasting tin, bung it in the oven, whizz to a purée. There are lots of other ways you can finish this off. A mixture of Gruyére and cheddar can be used on the toasts, or top the soup with crumbled feta and chopped preserved lemon, or a spoonful of basil cream (add chopped basil to some double cream or crème fraîche).
Overview
Prep time
10 mins
Cook time
50 mins
Serves
4
Ingredients
For the soup
- 1 large onion, roughly chopped
- 1.5kg plum tomatoes, halved
- A whole head of garlic, halved horizontally
- 75ml olive oil
- Handful of thyme sprigs
- ½ tbsp white-wine vinegar
For the toasts
- 4 slices sourdough
- 150g goat’s cheese
- Fresh thyme leaves
- 1½ tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
Method
Step
Preheat the oven to 200C/190C fan/gas mark 6.
Step
Put 1 roughly chopped large onion, 1.5kg halved plum tomatoes, a whole head of garlic (halved horizontally), 75ml olive oil and a handful of thyme sprigs into a roasting tin with some seasoning and turn the ingredients over with your hands.
Step
Finish with the tomatoes cut-side up and roast for 45 minutes, turning once. The tomatoes should be slightly charred.
Step
Leave to cool and remove the sprigs of thyme.
Step
Squeeze the soft garlic purée out of its skin and whizz everything in a blender or food processor with ½ tbsp white-wine vinegar and 100ml water. You might want more water; it depends on how thick you want the soup. Taste for seasoning and sweet-acid balance.
Step
Preheat the grill. Lightly toast 4 slices sourdough in a toaster (not too much, as you’re going to grill it more).
Step
Spread 150g goat’s cheese on top of the toast, sprinkle on some thyme leaves, drizzle with 1½ tbsp extra-virgin olive oil and grind on black pepper. Grill until the cheese is golden in patches.
Step
Heat the soup and serve with the toasts (halve or quarter each slice, or cut them into fingers).