Day 4: November 13

Breakfast-eggs, toast

Lunch- sandwich and homemade tomato soup. This is an amazing recipe! I omit the pasta and use the base.

Tomato Soup with Pasta and Basil

Prep time: 25 min   Total Cook time:  35 - 40 min    Serves: 4

Ingredients:

3 large 2 Tbs 1 med 1 clove 1 small 4 cups ¼ cup 1 tsp ¼ cup 1 cup To taste	Very Ripe Tomatoes Olive Oil Onion, finely chopped Garlic, crushed Red Pepper (capsicum), finely chopped Chicken or Vegetable Stock Tomato Paste (tomato puree, double concentrate) Sugar Fresh Basil Leaves Conchiglie (shell pasta) or macaroni Salt and Pepper

Directions:

1.  Score a small cross in the top of each tomato.  Plunge the tomatoes into boiling water for 1 – 2 minutes, then into cold water.  Peel the skin down from the cross and discard (I actually just keep the skins). Remove the seeds and roughly chop the tomatoes.  Heat the oil in a large heavy-based pan and cook the onion, garlic and red pepper, stirring for 10 minutes, or until soft.  Add the tomato and cook for another 10 minutes.

2.  Add the stock, tomato paste, sugar and salt and pepper to taste.  Cover and simmer for 15 minutes.  Remove from the heat and add the basil leaves.  Allow to cool slightly before processing the mixture, in batches, in a food processor or blender until smooth.  Return the mixture to the pan and reheat gently.

3.  While the soup is cooking add the pasta to a large pan of rapidly boiling salted water and cook until al dente.  Drain, add to the soup and heat through.  Garnish with basil leaves if you wish.  NOTE:  Basil is added at the end of cooking so that its flavor is not impaired. The quality of tomatoes makes a HUGE difference in flavor. Use heirloom tomatoes grown locally (or your garden) if you can!

Nutrition Per Serve:  Protein 10 g; Fat 10 g; Carbohydrate 40 g; Dietary Fibre 5 g; Cholesterol 0 mg; 1200 kJ (285 cal)

Dinner- Friends visiting this weekend! What a delight to have company! We had leftovers from Tuesday's dinner.