Sweet Compositions

Guess what? I’m cooking again! I’ve been to Italy for three months which in general when it comes to food should be a good thing, right? So why is it, that I didn’t post many new recipes during that time? Simple answer: If you share a kitchen with 17 other people, you first of all don’t have the privacy to bounce in circles around your dish with a camera without feeling stupid and second of all just kind of want to get in and out because everyone’s cramming into the kitchen and there’s no air to breathe. And I’m not exaggerating!

Other than that, my stay in Italy food-wise was absolutely amazing. I got to appreciate cheese in so many variations – I actually like ricotta now and am able to eat strong cheese as dessert, I had so many different kinds of pizza (love white pizza!) and pasta (love all kinds of pasta!), and everything’s just so cheap in restaurants! In Naples, I had a really good pizza for 4€, imagine that!

Okay, enough elaborating on past food adventures, it’s back to business. I know that this soup doesn’t look too special, but it’s okay, right? Actually, while I was making it I was talking to my brother and we came to the conclusion that it would be much better if you would just see the output and not the progress. I mean it doesn’t look too bad in the roasting phase, but the simmering phase when you scrape the eggplant from its skin and dump it into the broth to simmer, that’s just kind of weird. Nevertheless, it’s a really nice soup. My mum commented that it could have used some more tomatoes, but I don’t think so since then the eggplant would drown. I think of it as a tomatoes-containing-alternative with not too many tomatoes to a tomato soup. Does that make sense? :D

Roasted Eggplant & Tomato Soup
idea adapted from Smitten Kitchen

3 medium tomatoes
3 medium eggplants, equals about 700g
6 cloves of garlic
1 small onion
3-4 tablespoons of olive oil
1 1/4 liters of chicken or vegetable stock
1/2 teaspoon of dried thyme
80ml heavy cream or 80g sour cream
80g goat cheese

First step: Preheat the oven to 200°C. Half the tomatoes, eggplant and (peeled) onion. Peel the garlic cloves. Put everything onto one, or two, baking tray(s) and brush with olive oil. Put the tray(s) into the oven for twenty minutes. Retrieve the garlic cloves from the oven but leave the rest in there for another 25 minutes. Lower the heat a little bit if the veggies become too dark.

Second step: Bring the chicken broth to a boil in a large pot and then reduce the heat to a simmer. Add all vegetables that you roasted, but scrape the skin off the eggplant first. All other vegetables can go in as they are. Add the thyme and stir to mix everything. Let the mixture simmer for forty minutes.

Third step: Fun! Use a hand mixer to puree everything into a smooth mass. Add the heavy or sour cream and stir to incorporate fully. Fill the soup into bowls and add crumbled goat cheese on top. Serve immediately.