Ways I've avoided studying for finals

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It being September and all, the Coop had a deal on local yellow organic heirloom tomatoes today - $.78 a pound!  (Compare with $3 a pound for similar tomatoes selling today on FreshDirect).  This called for buying an extravagant amount of tomatoes (4 lbs.) for a recipe that would be too expensive any other time of the year to make: fresh roasted tomato soup.

I used this New York Times recipe, but with a few alterations:  First, I replaced sugar with maple syrup, as I usually do, because, in my opinion, it’s a more nuanced sweetener. Second, I threw in a pinch of crushed red pepper, which I put in pretty much everything I make as it gives a nice kick.  Third, I added about 2 tablespoons of creme fraiche to the soup before serving.  Finally, I didn’t bother skinning and coring the tomatoes, figuring - correctly as it turns out - that the straining process at the halfway point in this recipe would filter all of that out.

We served this with white bean bruschetta and cheap white wine, eating out on our roof deck and enjoying the fall-like temperatures.  I hadn’t made this soup since the end of last summer, when tomatoes were in a similar abundance.  It’s a pain in the ass to make, quite frankly, but my labors were rewarded with a richness and freshness of flavor that my usual tomato soup made with canned tomatoes can never match.

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The bruschetta is my own recipe, and is super easy to make, not to mention cheap. 

White bean Bruschetta

(serves 4-6)

• 1 can great northern beans
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• a small handful each of fresh basil and parsley, chopped
• a little lemon, to taste
• a bit more olive oil, somewhere in the ballpark of a tablespoon
• salt, pepper
• several thin slices of a baguette, or fewer if, like me, you have a standard-sized loaf on your hands.
• another clove of garlic, crushed or minced
• another tablespoon of olive oil
• parmesan cheese, grated

To make it:

1. preheat your oven to 300F.
2. drain and rinse a can of great northern beans and place them in a medium-sized bowl
3. mix in the minced garlic and chopped fresh herbs (you can substitute dried herbs if you’re absolutely desperate, but it won’t be as good)
4. add fresh lemon juice, slowly, stopping to taste frequently.  I can’t overemphasize this enough: when you’re adding lemon juice to spreads and dips, proceed with caution and add the lemon juice in small increments.  It’s really easy to add too much at once and end up with an overwhelming lemon-y flavor. 
5. Salt and pepper this bad boy.
6. Partially mash the beans.  You don’t want to turn this into a paste but you do want to be able to spread it.  You should still be able to make out the outlines of individual beans.
7. Slice your bread into however many slices you feel like, keeping in mind that one can of this bean dip will feed 4 bigger portions and 6 hors d’oeuvres-sized portions.
8. mixed the crushed/minced garlic in a small bowl with the tablespoon of olive oil, then brush each side of the bread with the garlic oil mixture.
9. Place the bread on a cookie sheet and toast in the oven for about 10 minutes or so, flipping the bread at some point while it’s toasting
10. Remove the bread from the oven, spread the bean mixture on each slice of bread, and top with parmesan cheese.
11. Bake for about 15 minutes.