NTR's Red Pepper Soup

By fineartdaily • September 1, 2010 • 1 Comments

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Author Notes: The first time I tasted red pepper soup, it was like heaven in a bowl. My friend, Mary Ann, who makes fabulous organic goats’ milk and olive oil soaps that she sells in a shop called Poiema in the tiny Adirondack town of North Creek, is a wonderful, though sporadic cook who has spawned an inspired chef in Luke Bowers, chef at barVino in North Creek. Enough of advertising those I love. I first tasted the red pepper soup, crimson, garlicy, warming and delicious, on a chilly autumn day along with a warm loaf of fresh bread and soft goat cheese and a bottle of superb red wine. A memorable meal that illustrates how attention to and appreciation of small things in life translates a wonderful life. - NTR - fineartdaily

Serves 4

2 red sweet peppers, diced
4 tablespoons best olive oil
2 medium sweet onions, minced
4 large perfectly ripe tomatoes, chopped with juice or 15-ounce tin of organic tomatoes
2 large cloves of fresh garlic, minced
Salt and pepper
1 quart homemade chicken stock or low-salt organic
1 tablespoon fresh basil or 1 ½ teaspoons dried basil

Heat three tablespoons of oil in a heavy pot. Add red peppers, onions, and garlic. Simmer gently for 10 minutes until vegetables are translucent and soft. Add tomatoes. Simmer another 5 minutes. Add stock, salt and pepper and simmer for another 20 minutes. If it’s too chunky for your taste, run a hand blender through it, but don’t blend out all the chunks since they will offer up a variety of tiny little different tastes. Serve on a cool day – preferably rainy or sleeting, with a fire going in the fireplace – along with a loaf of fresh bread or large crusts on which has been spread some goat cheese. Drizzle each soup bowl with a tiny bit of olive oil before serving (that’s where the fourth tablespoon of oil goes). And sit down with a good glass of red wine, and a friend, to enjoy it in front of a fire.