"TomatoSoup" news and stories

You can't talk about cold soups without talking tomatoes. Garden-fresh gazpacho is the go-to soup for summer. If you roast the tomatoes, as in this Kitchen Daily recipe, you'll add depth of flavor. On the sweeter side, though, is a chilled soup of yellow tomatoes blended with sweet yellow peppers and banana peppers, along with garlic and herbs.

Blogger Chiot's Run not only makes tomato soup, she cans it, along with pickles and sauerkraut. (See her recipes here). On a cold winter's day, to taste the tomatoes of summer (not the bland hothouse stuff that's around then), is a gift. So if you're ready to boil the Ball jars, and set up a canning operation, go for it (and check out Eugenia Bone's how-to book Well-Preserved: Recipes and Techniques for Putting Up Small Batches of Seasonal Foods). And for pickling, you can't beat Chris Schlesinger, John Willoughby, and Dan George's Quick Pickles: Easy Recipes for Big Flavor.

Become a member of the Slashfood Flickr pool for a shot of having your photos featured in Feast Your Eyes.

Tomato on the vine. Photo: Mrs. Gemstone, Flickr

• Tomato fans, beware: A new fungus is ravaging Northeast plants and could cause a sharp price increase.
  
• "Bronx Flavor," a new public-access show, showcases local eateries with extra flair such as Bollywood dance numbers and drag races.
• Summer-friendly South American Sauvignon Blancs.
• Wondrously tart black currants loaded with Vitamin C are now hitting farmers' markets.
  
• Patacón Maracucho: a Venezuelan sandwich in which plantains are used in lieu of bread.
• Queens' Tortillería Nixtamal is the place to get traditional Mexican masa.
• Go Greek with a recipe for Cashew Pilaf, mix chicken with peaches or whip up some Moroccan Tomato Soup.

When I was a kid, I had a very strict and immobile belief on the idea of grilled cheese -- it was always cheddar melted between slices of white bread with a can of Campbell's tomato soup. It had to be Campbell's, the can was not to be diluted with water (blasphemy!), and it would only be consumed with the sandwich. No tomato soup without the sandwich, and no grilled cheese without the soup.

These days, I'm a smidge more open-minded. I kill for grilled cheese with tomato, and sometime I even sass up my old mainstay with something like the tuscan bean soup above. But some of the old sentiment lingers. I can't imagine the thought of tomato soup without the sandwich, unless we're talking tuscan bean, minestrone, or something similar. Likewise, unless I add other ingredients to the cheese and bread, it seems lonely without the soup.

But what about you? Do you have strict grilled cheese beliefs or habits? Share below!

Quick tip: To cut cooking time for grilled cheese without a panini press, heat a large and small cast iron skillet. Put the sandwich in the larger pan, and then pick up the smaller skillet and press it down on top of the sandwich.

My high school boyfriend's mom used to make this strange pasta dish she called "American Chop Suey." If I recall correctly, it was a dish she grew up eating in the Fifties. There is nothing Chinese about it so perhaps the "chop suey" refers to the hodge-podge of ingredients found in the dish.

I made it tonight after not having eaten it for almost twenty years, and I have to say, it wasn't bad. No, I'm serious! It really wasn't. ...But my three-year-old wouldn't eat it.

American Chop Suey

1 lb. ground beef
1 medium onion, chopped
1 tsp. of  garlic powder
1 tsp sugar (optional)
1 can of Campbell's Tomato Soup
1 pound of elbow macaroni

Put on pasta water to boil. Salt water generously. When it comes to a boil, cook macaroni according to package direction.

In the meantime, fry the ground beef, onion, and garlic powder together over medium heat until beef is browned, crumbly, and cooked through. Stir in the tomato soup and sugar. bring to a simmer and then turn heat to low.

Drain cooked macaroni and combine with ground beef-tomato soup mixture. Serve topped with grated parmesan cheese.