Roasted Red Pepper and Tomato Soup

Let me tell you about this amazing shop that i recently discovered.

enter: Cheese & Crackers

This shop was so cute with a lovely spread of cheese and chocolate. The staff are incredibly happy and fun and great to talk to, providing awesome suggestions and pairings for meals you might be making. not to mention their extensive shelf of intelligentsia coffee, baked breads from pekara, and organic and different kinds of pastas.

I went home with aged manchego, parmasean, and gjetost (pronounce yost? i asked them several times but i can't seem to get it down). the gjetost is this amazing caramely norwegian cheese that people eat with toast for breakfast. it's so smooth and delicious. apparently they make it with milk and heat it til it acquires a golden caramel brown color and develops its rich sweet and slightly nutty flavor. it is literally... caramel cheese... one of the guys there showed me how to shave cheese and gave me a short lesson on maximizing the flavor of hard cheese without needing any fancy cheese slicing equipment :-) He brought his cutting board and knife out and demonstrate the shaving technique which was awesomely simple and packed with flavor.

the store also carries an amazing assortment of fine artisan chocolates, each piece hand painted by some lady in new york. a little skeptical at first, i bought two pieces: 1. apricot chili and 2. white peach champaign. and i must say, they were indeed delicious. i have to go back and try their other chocolates.

Um, and lastly... they carry a basket of flavored and seasoned salts from a local distributor in danville. hellooooo pink hawiian sea salt, volcano salt, hicory smoked salt, black truffle sea salt... and a ton more. and yes... i fell for the delicious suggestion of sprinkling black truffle sea salt on my soup!!!!!!!!!!!! so i bought it. and it was one of the best purchases of my weekend. I asked the girl whether they had the black salt, smoked to a charcoaly perfection, that they carried at Carmon's. And instead of saying no... she turned to me and said, you know what.. you are the fourth person today to ask that question. I'm going to place an order today.

This, my friends... is a great great store. Please support them. they are a gem in this community.


And with the treasures that i acquired, both fromthe farmers market and the cheese and crackers store, i made....

Roasted Red Pepper and Tomato Soup

Ingredients:

4 med sized red pepper
3 cloves garlic
3 med sized tomatoes
1/2 onion
1 acorn squash
1/2 c cream
1 c water
couple T of olive oil
dashes of salt and pepper to taste

shaves of aged manchego and parmesean cheese

a dash of black truffle sea salt (or regular sea salt)

• Roast the red peppers over a flame til the outsides are nicely charred and store in a covered container until the skin starts to blister

Just Partially Charred

• Cut acorn squash in half and roast at 400, face down in a little bit of water
• Cut tomatoes into small wedges and sprinkle with kosher salt. roast in oven until the tomatoes are slightly wrinkly and losing water (if they get nice and crispy along the edges, even better)
• Chop onions into large pieces and sautee with olive oil and garlic until the onion is soft and semi translucent
• Scoop out the guts of the acorn squash, cut and peel the roasted peppers, add tomatoes and sautee briefly with the onions and garlic. Add half cup of water and simmer briefly
  
• Using a food processor or blender, puree the peppers, tomatoes, squash, onion and garlic mix until you reach a desired consistency. (i wanted it to be really creamy but my processor has its limits. chunky soups are delicious too)
• Put back into sauce pan and bring to a simmer. Add the remaining water and cream and season to taste with salt and pepper. for thicker soup, add less water. for more delicious soup, use a stock or broth of some sort... i had nothing so i just used water.
• Shave parmesean and aged manchego cheese and sprinkle over the hot soup and add a sprinkle of black truffle sea salt and enjoy with crusty bread.

Shaved Parm

Yum.....

I couldn't get enough of the soup so I used it as a base for my pasta sauce. Simmered it down a little with some regular store bought pasta sauce (i ran out of tomatoes :-( sadddd!!!) and added more shreeded cheese!!! and a pinch of black truffle sea salt!!!!!! yum. This was my delicious pre-bike ride dinner :-)

Pastaaaaa

Til next time-- eat well, drink well, live well!!!