Fire-Roasted Tomato Bisque & Grilled Cheese

The inspiration for this meal came from the Italian Pantry Bistro and the past couple of rainy, dreary days that require nothing more then cosy sweat pants. 

Last week I had tomato bisque and grilled cheese from a restaurant in Cranford  the "Italian Pantry Bistro" - the food there is great, it has a real rustic, home cooked type atmosphere. I'm not much of a soup person but the tomato bisque there is to d i e for! They put bits of pecorino romano covered popcorn into the soup - an ingenious idea. 

Now I'm not going to lie, I have never made a tomato bisque and was quite nervous to do so. But in my opinion food is about exploring new things, maybe even encountering a few blunders along the way. That's how you become a better chef - learn from your mistakes! 

I wanted to recreate this lovely foodlious masterpiece while still putting my own spin on it. The recipe is as follows:

• 2 table spoons Olive Oil 
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 1 medium onion - diced
• 3 ribs of celery - diced 
• 3 carrots - diced
• minced garlic (about 4 cloves)
• 2 heaping tablespoons flour
• 6 cups low sodium chicken stock
• 2 cups white wine 
• 2 (28 ounce) cans fire roasted tomatoes
• 2 cups low fat sour cream 
• 1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
• 2 teaspoons
• salt 
• pepper
• 1/2 cup Grated Pecernio Romano 

Dice to onion, carrot and celery. Put them in the pot with the olive oil and butter, salt and pepper - let them saute for about 7 minutes then add the minced garlic. Cook the veggies for about 2 more minutes once garlic is added.

(Ladies the smell of onions sautéing is so great - if you want to trick your man get take out, but sauté some onions when you know he's coming home - he'll think you were slaving away cooking all day!!) shhh the Garlic Goddess didn't tell you that ;)

 Add the flour and stir together - let it cook for about a minute. Then deglaze the pan with the chicken stock and white wine. Following that add the tomatoes, tomato paste, sugar, and salt and pepper . Cook on medium heat and bring to a boil  - about 15 minutes. 

Once everything has come to a boil shut the heat off and let everything cool down for about 5 minutes. I then take my handy dandy immersion blender and make everything smooth. ( If you're using a food processor make sure the mixture has cooled and only fill the blender half way - to avoid leaking). Once everything is blended add salt and pepper, the low fat sour cream and pecerino-romano cheese, you can use heavy cream but I prefer low- fat sour cream. Let the soup simmer for another 15 minutes more and you will have a hearty, tasty tomato bisque. 

As for the Grilled Cheese I have been making my grilled cheese a particular way for a few years now. I always, always use at least 2 cheeses and I always use spicy mustard with it. 

You need a good bread for this, I used a fresh brioche from the Breadsmith in Cranford. The cheese I choose was a sharp vermont white cheddar as well as a yellow cheddar. 

Instead of using butter for the outside of the grilled cheese I like to use a thin coat of mayo. Put the mayo on the outside of the one slice and put that little guy into the frying pan - on low heat. Then take the cheese slices and tare them in half and then into quarters. (Cheese melts better when its broken up) put the cheese on the slice of bread that is in the pan. Once that's done, the other slice of bread gets a good lathering of spicy mustard - the other side gets some mayo - smush the bread slice mustard side down onto the cheese and you know the rest ;)  

I'm pretty proud of the way this soup ended up. I hope you all will take a go at it on the next cold and dreary day!! 


It had great flavor - the pecornio- romano defiantly adds another depth of flavor. As for the grilled cheese well nothing complements a good tomato bisque more. If you want something to drink, I would pick a crisp and fruity Pinot Grigio.  


Bon Appetit - Garlic Goddess!!