Grilled Cheese and Creamless Creamy Tomato Soup
Date completed: 1/10/2021
In one dinner I tackled recipes from two chapters of America’s Test Kitchen Cooking for Two Cookbook.
I first choose the Creamless Creamy Tomato Soup because it reminded me of one of my favorite meals in Italy last fall. Pappa al pomodoro which, like this Creamless Creamy Tomato Soup, is a tomato soup made with bread. According to ATK, the bread makes the soup creamy and eliminates the need for cream.
The obvious choice to accompany my tomato soup: grilled cheese. Thankfully the cookbook included a grilled cheese recipe in another chapter. The grilled cheese recipe also happily used vermouth which I happened to have on hand leftover from the Manhattan cocktail.
Garrett and I cooked these together for our Sunday night dinner. We easily followed the tomato soup recipe with the only swap-out being an immersion blender rather than a regular blender. The soup called for a tablespoon of brandy at the end which I am not convinced actually did anything. It did serve as a fun conversation starter with the lady behind the counter at the liquor store where I purchased the “airplane bottle” of brandy.
The grilled cheese recipe contained quite a few more steps than you might expect. A fascinating process (and fun for a leisurely Sunday night) but not necessarily a recipe I’d repeat. It starts with getting some cheddar cheese down to room temperature by cutting it into pieces and microwaving. ATK notes the cheddar should be aged no longer than one year for optimal melting - the more you know!
You throw the room temp cheddar chunks into a food processor with a tablespoon of brie and the vermouth. Process until you have a cheese paste. Then add in some minced shallots until combined.
Here’s where the recipe starts to feel more like a traditional grilled cheese. You butter your bread and split the cheese mixture evenly between the two sandwiches. Throw it on the griddle and you’re set!
We finished the tomato soup first and let it stay warm on the stove while the grilled cheeses finished up.
Taste report:
Yummy but not going to change your life. I loved the addition of the shallots to the grilled cheese and the soup paired perfectly with it (no surprise). Compared to the pappa al pomodoro I enjoyed so much in Italy, it was not quite as good. All things considered, comparing the two is not fair. Sunday night meal in Kansas City vs. vacation food tour in Florence… no surprise which one wins that.
Mess report:
Too many dishes! A grilled cheese that requires me to break out the food processor has little chance to become a staple in my kitchen. The soup generated a reasonable amount of dishes.
A big benefit to note: both recipes used white sandwich bread which I don’t typically buy. It worked out nicely to make them at the same time. I also mentioned that the grilled cheese gave me another use for my vermouth which I appreciated!
