Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup: A Match Made In Heaven
There was a time when I refused to eat breakfast. Cereal tasted bland, the texture of oatmeal didn’t agree with me, and yogurt was not yet a part of my routine. In an effort to get me to eat something for breakfast, my mother told me I could eat anything I wanted as long as I ate before I left for school. So, for about my entire 6th grade year, I made myself a grilled cheese sandwich or quesadilla before I grabbed my backpack and headed out the door.
There is just something about melted cheese on bread that hits a sweet spot when you are looking for a bit of comfort food, no matter the time of day. Put that sandwich of oozing cheese next to bowl of tomato soup and you have yourself an unlikely match that was surely made in heaven.
These two dishes, grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup, are comfort food at its best. What makes this comfort food better than most is its utter simplicity and endless opportunities for variation.
The appeal of this homey dish has not been lost on fine dining restaurants. When Tommy Bahama's in Newport Beach, CA redesigned their menu a year ago, one of the dishes they were most excited to add was an heirloom tomato soup with a lobster grilled cheese sandwich. The response was so overwhelming that the other restaurants in the chain asked to carry that item as well. Now at just about any of their dozen restaurants around the country you can find a version of the soup and sandwich, be it the original lobster grilled cheese or a shrimp grilled cheese both paired with heirloom tomato soup.
Making a great grilled cheese is an art. And once you have the basics down, from there it is an open canvas for personal interpretation. When using a hard melting cheese like cheddar, the cheese benefits from grating. It will melt more quickly and evenly than simply putting sliced cheese on bread, avoiding the potential hazard of burning the bread while waiting for the cheese to melt. Room temperature butter is also crucial. The butter needs to be at an easily spreadable consistency to coat both sides of the bread before hitting a medium hot frying pan.
Sure, inexpensive tomato soup takes nothing more than a dollar and a can opener these days. But for better texture, a rich tomato flavor, and to avoid all the sodium in the canned stuff, you don’t need much more than peeled, whole canned tomatoes and a blender (sorry, Dad, I know your time working at Campbell’s soup was important, but the homemade version is always better). Some sautéed chopped onion, garlic, and fresh basil along with those tomatoes and thinned out with a bit of vegetable stock or water is the base for a fantastic simple and delicious tomato soup. Whizz that soup up in blender after the flavors have had some time to marry in the pot, and that easy, homemade tomato soup is grilled cheese sandwich-ready.
Once the basics of the grilled cheese and tomato soup are mastered, it can be a jumping off point for any number elaborations on the original. Simple additions like minced onion to the grilled cheese--such as they do on a Panini press outside of the Neil’s Yard Cheese Shop in London--are a nice counterpoint to sharp English cheddar. Goat cheese with chives on sourdough, brie with grilled portabellas and truffle oil on French bread, mozzarella and basil ciabatta: the opportunities to create with grilled cheese are endless.
As for the soup, add few jarred roasted red peppers to the tomato soup as a twist to the classic. Of course, if you are in the height of summer, nothing could be better than using fresh sun-ripened tomatoes for your soup. A little dollop of pesto on top of a freshly made tomato soup is both and elegant and tasty finish.
Even in the sixth grade my love of grilled cheese sandwiches for breakfast tapped into a very American love for the simplicity of melted cheese on bread. Whether eating a street food version made on a Panini press outside a famous cheese shop, or a fancy lobster version with heirloom tomato soup at a fine dining restaurant, the grilled cheese sandwich with a nice tomato soup for dipping is the stuff to soothe the soul and fill the belly of young and old alike, be it an adult looking for comfort food in fine dining, or a kid looking for a more delicious breakfast than mere Cheerios.
Made with salt and pepper, water, vegetable broth, olive oil, onion, garlic, whole peeled tomatoes, fresh basil, red pepper flakes
Serves/Makes: 4
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 medium onion
- 1 clove garlic
- 1 can (28 ounce size) whole peeled tomatoes
- 8 large fresh basil leaves
- 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 2 cups vegetable broth
- 1 cup water
- salt and pepper, to taste
Heat oil in a medium saucepan over a medium flame. Roughly chop onion and add to the oil sauteing for about 4 minutes. Mince garlic and add to onion. Saute for another minute.
Meanwhile, place tomatoes in a bowl and use your hand to crush them a bit breaking up the tomatoes into large pieces. Roughly chop basil.
Add tomatoes, basil, red pepper flakes vegetable broth and water to the pot, plus some salt and pepper. Stir, then cover with a lid and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook for about 10 minutes. Taste and adjust seasoning with additional salt and pepper.
Use a hand blender or place mixture in a standing blender and mix until smooth.
Variations: Add 1/2 cup chopped, jarred roasted red peppers along with the tomatoes plus an additional 1/2 cup of water. Proceed with recipe.
Or make a pesto with olive oil, pinoli nuts, basil, parmesan cheese, salt and pepper in the blender. Top each bowl of soup with a tablespoon of pesto to stir in as seasoning.
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1 comments
This was one of Mama's (your Grandmother Powell's) favorites, which I enjoyed a lot when I was growing up in Grand Island, NE. And then, in a curious twist of fate, I helped make tomato soup when I worked for Campbell's Soup Co. in Sacramento, CA. Either way, canned or homemade, both are "mm good" and I still love grilled cheese sandwiches. Thanks for the memories. Love ya. Daddy
Comment posted by DAD
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