Yotam Ottolenghi's recipes for tomato soup three ways | Food (2024)

Cream of tomato soup with buttered onions and orecchiette

This tastes like a homemade version of the Heinz classic. The habanero adds a hot, fruity and smoky complexity that I love, but remove it entirely if you want to make the dish child-friendly, and use only half if you don’t like too much heat.

Prep 15 min
Cook 1 hr 10 min
Serves 4

Put the butter, three tablespoons of oil, the onions and a teaspoon of salt in a large saute pan on a medium heat and cook, stirring often, for 18-20 minutes, until soft and deeply golden brown (you don’t want the onions to burn or become crisp, so lower the heat as necessary).

Transfer two-thirds of the fried onions to a bowl with the remaining three tablespoons of oil, stir to combine and set aside until you’re ready to serve.

Leave the soup to cool for five to 10 minutes, so it’s not super-hot, then transfer to a blender and blitz until completely smooth.

Meanwhile, cook the orecchiette in a big pot of salted boiling water until al dente, then drain and divide between four bowls. Divide the soup across the four bowls, spoon the cream on top, then scatter over the reserved fried onion mix and serve.

Gingery tomato gazpacho

Prep 25 min
Cook 30 min
Chill 1 hr+
Serves 4 as a starter

Put the ginger, garlic and oil in a small saute pan on a medium-low heat. Cook for 15 minutes, or just until the oil begins to bubble and the ginger and garlic have softened without taking on much colour (turn down the heat if necessary). Transfer half of the solids and oil to a bowl and set aside (you’ll use this in the gazpacho base later), then return the rest to a medium-high heat and add the paprika and an eighth of a teaspoon of salt. Once the mix is bubbling, cook for just 30 seconds, then turn off the heat and leave to cool completely. Once cool, stir through the coriander.

Quarter the tomatoes, then put them into a blender with the toasted pine nuts, red pepper, onion, chilli, the reserved ginger-and-garlic oil, a teaspoon and a half of salt and a good grind of pepper. Roughly chop half the cucumber and add to the blender, then blitz until completely smooth. Transfer to a large bowl or container, and refrigerate for at least an hour, or longer if time allows, until very cold.

Divide the chilled soup between four bowls. Finely dice the remaining cucumber into 1cm cubes and scatter on top. Finally, spoon over the reserved ginger-garlic-and-coriander oil and serve cold.

Roast tomato and aubergine soup with anchovy aïoli

Prep 25 min
Cook 1 hr
Serves 4

For the aïoli
5 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
8 anchovy fillets, drained and finely chopped
90ml olive oil
50ml sunflower oil
1 egg yolk
1 tbsp lemon juice

Heat the oven to 230C (210C fan)/450F/gas 8.

Use a vegetable peeler to peel away strips of the aubergine skin from top to bottom, leaving them with alternating stripes of black skin and white flesh, a bit like a zebra, then cut the aubergines into 3cm chunks.

Meanwhile, get on with everything else. For the aïoli, put the first three ingredients and half a teaspoon of salt in a medium saucepan on a low heat. Cook gently, stirring occasionally, for 12 minutes, until the garlic and anchovies are soft and can be mashed with the back of a spoon; take care that the oil does not get too hot, or the garlic will catch and burn– if it starts to bubble too much, just take the pan off the heat to cool down a little, then return to the heat.

Transfer 60g of the garlic and anchovy oil mixture to a measuring jug, add the sunflower oil and leave to cool.

Now finish the aïoli. Put the egg yolk, lemon juice and an eighth of a teaspoon of salt in the small bowl of a food processor, then, with the motor running, very slowly start pouring in the cooled garlic and anchovy oil mixture, until the mix emulsifies and thickens to a mayonnaise-like consistency. Transfer to a small bowl.

Divide the roast aubergine mix between four bowls, then top with the hot broth, the croutons and a spoonful of aïoli. Finish with the herbs and a good grind of pepper, and serve straight away.