Italian Tomato Soup With Pesto Grilled Cheese

Italian Tomato Soup With Pesto Grilled Cheese

There is nothing better than good old fashion Italian soup served with pesto-grilled cheese. It is delicious, mouth-watering comforting food. That smell of fresh herbs, tomatoes and grilled cheese….. Oh my. You can’t say no to that. No matter how bad your day has been this soup will bring smile back to your face.

All you need now is soup.

Ingredients:

• 1 litre of chicken stock (I made mine from chicken wings)
• 10 chicken wings
• 8 skinless tomatoes, chopped
• 1 can of tomato puree
• 1 large onion, grilled
• 2 tablespoons of oregano
• 2 tablespoons of basil
• 2 tablespoons of rosemary
• 2 tablespoons of thyme
• 2 tablespoons of sage
• 2 carrots
• 1 parsnip
• 1 celery stick
• 2 bay leaves
• Pepper
• Salt
• 3 garlic cloves
• Parsley (green part) handful

Preparation;

• In a large pot bring to boil 1 litre of water, slightly salted
• Put previously washed chicken wings, bay leaves, pepper, salt into the water
• Bring heat to small and cook for 30 minutes
• Meanwhile take one large onion, remove skin and cut it in half. Preheat oven to 250 degrees Celsius and grill onion for around10 minutes. After that put onion to the soup pot
• Prepare rest of vegetables. Peel carrots, parsley and wash them. Cut celery stick into half. Peel garlic cloves. Wash all including green part of parsley. After that preparation put all of them into the soup pot
• If you are using fresh herbs, wash them first and then chop before adding into soup.
• Cook on small heat for another 20 minutes.
• Put your tomatoes into large bowl and cover with boiling water. After few seconds tomatoes skin will be easy to remove.
• Cut prepared tomatoes and add to the soup along with tomato puree.
• At the end of cooking remove all vegetables from the soup. Here goes option one; leave the soup as it is now
• Option two:
• Put garlic, one carrot, herbs and meat from chicken wings (no skin, no bones), add one cup of soup into blender and blend all. Prepared mixture add back to the pot.

Pesto

Ingredients:

• 3 cups of fresh basil
• ½ cup of pine nuts
• 4 peeled garlic cloves
• ½ cup of Parmesan cheese
• ½ cup of olive oil

Preparation:

• In blender or food processor blend together all ingredients. Make it smooth. You can season it with salt and pepper
• Store in fridge (freshly made pesto can be used even for a week)

Grilled cheese sandwiches

Ingredients;

• Italian bread
• One mozzarella
• Pesto

Preparation:

• prepare your pesto first
• cut bread into 1 inch thick slices
• spread pesto on first bread slice
• cut mozzarella into thin slices
• put mozzarella on top of pesto. You might put another layer of pesto if you wish. Cover with second slice of bread
• Put to preheated oven to 250 degrees Celsius for 5-10 minutes.