Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup
It has been very cold lately in San Francisco. Of course, I mean cold by SF standards and not east coast standards. I had a craving for soup and the amount of cheese we had in our fridge left over from a party led to one logical conclusion: GRILLED CHEESE.
Ingredients:
- 1 can crushed tomatoes (I got the unsalted kind from Trader Joe's)
- 1 tsp oregano
- 1 tsp thyme
- 1 tsp rosemary
- Handful of fresh basil
- Salt
- Black pepper
- 1/3 cup cream or milk
- 2 slices of sourdough bread
- Cheese: I used pepperjack, gouda, sharp cheddar, and a gruyere/swiss mix
- Optional: sliced sundried tomatoes
- Put the can of crushed tomatoes into a blender and add all the spices up to the black pepper (I like using crushed black pepper for more of a kick).
- Blend it all together and then pour the mix into a pot, and bring that to a boil.
- Turn down the heat a little bit and whisk in the cream/milk. Taste it and add more salt and pepper if you want! Turn the heat down low so your soup is still hot while your sandwich is cooking.
- For the grilled cheese, I used a sourdough bread that I toasted in the oven. Spread some butter or spray a cooking oil on each slice and pop it into the oven at 400 degrees until lightly toasted. Take the bread out, flip it over and add your cheeses before popping it back into the oven so it gets all nice and melted, like an open face sandwich.
- At this point, I added the sundried tomatoes and then put the two halves together to make my sandwich. Press down with your hands or, if it's too hot, use a frying pan to press it down!
Serve with some cracked black pepper on top of your soup and start dipping away. This is a perfect rainy day meal or if it's cold where you are, and you can put anything you want in your grilled cheese. Other options I want to try in the future are mozzarella and basil, mac and cheese, or maybe even an eggplant parmesan version!
