Roasted Tomato and Garlic Soup

It's tomato season and now that it's cooler it's also soup season...ok for me, soup season is year round. I love soups. So, when Dad delivered some of his homegrown tomatoes to me, and when I saw this recipe in the October 2014 Cooking Light magazine, I had to make it. It really wasn't that hard, and scent of the roasting tomatoes and garlic was incredible.

That's the way tomatoes are meant to smell. The recipe calls for beefsteak tomatoes. I didn't know for sure what breed of tomatoes Dad gave me. I just took the biggest and meatiest of the lot.

I did have one problem with the recipe. It says to strain the soup through a fine sieve after pureeing it. Well, my strainer is very fine, and the next biggest thing I have is a colander...needless to say it didn't work, so I decided just to eat it without straining out the solids. It tastes good, but it's much thicker than it should be and the texture is undoubtedly coarser. I suspect it would be much more appealing if it were thinner. The smell and the taste is still quite good. However, I doubt I'll ever be making this again. It's not "throw it down the garbage disposal" bad, but it's not exactly, "I can't get enough of this stuff" good either.

Speaking of tomato soups. There used to be a restaurant in Sioux City called Botticelli's. I think it closed, or maybe it moved. Anyway, they used to serve this incredible Carciofi soup. It was a creamy, pureed artichoke (that's what carciofi means) and tomato soup. It was simply to die for. I've been trying to find a good recipe for it for years now. If anyone has any idea how it's made, please share. I'll certainly mention and thank you here.