Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup

What could be better than homemade tomato soup and a grilled cheese sandwich? I can't think of anything either.

With the little tomato eater's digestive track keeping her out of the great cherry tomato eating race, my cherry tomatoes were starting to accumulate. What to do with over 2 pounds of cherry tomatoes, what to do???

Make soup! I love the recipe that has been passed down from Grams to G-Mama, but that used large tomatoes...so I had to punt on this one and mix it up a little.

Cream of Roasted Cherry Tomato Soup

2 lbs (or 3 pints) cherry tomatoes

1-1/2 tablespoons olive oil

milk (equal to processed tomatoes)

1 tbsp butter

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp italian seasoning blend

1/2 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 500F. Place tomatoes in a large baking dish and drizzle with olive oil. Roast the tomatoes for 20 minutes in the oven, they will burst open. Let cool 5 minutes, then transfer tomatoes to a food processor or blender. Process until smooth. Place into a large measuring cup, it should yield about 4 cups.

In a large sauce pan, melt the butter. Add tomatoes and heat until simmering. Remove from heat, add baking soda and stir, it will foam.

In large measuring cup measure out an equal amount of milk to processed tomatoes. Slowly stir in, spoonful by spoonful, the tomatoes as not to curdle the milk. Once most of the tomatoes have been mixed with the milk add back into saucepan, add italian seasoning and salt; heat gently and serve.