Roasted Tomato Basil Soup

Tomato soup. One of the simpler soups that exist, and one that, I for one, love to make homemade. Especially when tomatoes are on sale! As you'll tend to notice, I find ingredients that are on sale and then find something tasty to make with what I have. It might not come out exactly as I've planned, but it's usually tasty enough. This afternoon I decided it was time to use up the 7 or 8 vine tomatoes I had gotten, as well as clear out the vegetables I had in the fridge that had to be used before they went bad.

Roasted Tomato Basil Soup:

• 6 or 7 large tomatoes halved
• 4 cloves of garlic minced
• 1/2 medium onion diced
• 1 stalk celery chopped
• olive oil
• 2 cups vegetable/chicken broth
• 1 1/2 Tbs basil
• 1 tsp fennel seeds
• 3/4 cup milk/cream
• 1/4 cup red wine
• 1/2 cup uncooked rice
• salt and pepper to taste

1. Preheat oven to 350 F
2. Saute onions, garlic and celery in pan with olive oil. Season with salt, pepper and basil. 
3. Place tomatoes cut side down on top of sauteed vegetables in oven-safe pan. Lightly drizzle olive oil over and bake for 40-45 minutes.
4. While tomatoes bake, combine broth and wine in pot. Simmer on low for 20-30 minutes.
5. Remove pan from oven and lightly crush the tomatoes into the vegetables. Add to broth mixture, mix well. Optional: Blend soup using an immersion blender, regular blender or food processor to make smaller chunks of tomato. If using blender or food processor, be careful transferring hot soup. 
6. Add fennel seeds to soup, along with milk. Stir in well. Add rice and cover. Simmer on medium low heat until rice is tender.

I ended up using too much rice the first go round. It was still tasty though!