Today is the first day of fall, and this bright and comforting Tomato Soup is the perfect dish to take us from warm summer days to balmy autumn nights. The recipe comes from Allison Vines-Rushing and Slade Rushing’s book Southern Comfort, which infuses the couple’s childhood food influences growing up in Louisiana and Mississippi with their professional culinary training to create a beautiful homage to New Oreleans, its food, its history, and its culture.

The authors, who are also the chefs at New Orleans’s MiLa Restaurant, suggest stashing a pint of this soup in the freezer and enjoying it with a grilled cheese sandwich when it starts to get chilly.

Tomato Soup
from Southern Comfort by Allison Vines-Rushing and Slade Rushing (Ten Speed Press, October 2012)
Serves 6

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 onion, thinly sliced
10 cloves garlic, smashed
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
Sprig of rosemary
1 fresh bay leaf
21/2 pounds tomatoes, quartered
1 tablespoon fine sea salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 cup white wine
6 cups vegetable stock

In a large saucepan, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the onion, garlic, red pepper flakes, rosemary, and bay leaf and cook for 3 minutes.
Add the tomatoes, salt, sugar, and pepper and cook until the tomatoes start to break down, an additional 3 minutes. Add the white wine, bring the mixture to a simmer, and cook for
2 minutes. Add the stock, bring back to a simmer, decrease the heat to low, and cook for
30 minutes.
Remove the herbs and puree the soup in a blender, in batches, until smooth. Before turning on the machine, be sure the lid is tightly secured and covered with a towel to prevent the hot mixture from escaping.
Serve immediately.

For more recipes from Southern Comfort, see the excerpt below:

Southern Comfort by Allison Vines-Rushing and Slade Rushing – Recipes and Excerpt