Every now and again, a restaurant comes up with a dish that no matter how hard the chef may try, it will never leave the menu…even if it is no longer on the menu.  People request it, demand it, and drive across town for it.  Curtis’  tomato-fennel soup at Seven Restaurant, was one of these dishes.  It didn’t matter that tomatoes were no longer in season ( he would not make it with canned tomatoes) because every day the requests would come in.

This is a very simple soup to make, and its popularity developed due to the fact that the ingredients were fresh.  Fresh tomatoes, fresh fennel, garlic, onions, salt and pepper.  A great summer soup.  Now this isn’t to say that you can’t produce a great tomato soup in the Winter using canned tomatoes, but the color, texture and flavor of this version will have you trying to make it even if the season is over, and fresh tomatoes are no longer on the menu.

for the soup
6-8 servings
20 medium size tomatoes, quartered
1 large head of fennel, halved, sliced, and finely chopped
6 peeled garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 whole medium onion, peeled and chopped
extra virgin olive oil
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

In a large saucepan, add about 3 tablespoons of the olive oil, and heat over a low-medium heat. Add the garlic, onion and fennel. What you are looking to do is to ’sweat’ the ingredients. You do not want the mixture to color. After about 10 minutes, add the tomatoes, cover and cook on a low heat for about 40 minutes, or until the liquid from the tomatoes doubles in volume. Purée the soup until it is very smooth (this can be done with an immersion blender, or in small batches with a conventional blender).  Season with sea salt and pepper, and remember to taste until you get it correct, 5-6 large pinches of salt may seem like a lot, but none of the ingredients used contained any sodium so… add, taste, add.

+ serve this with a garish of roughly chopped tomato, fennel, basil, sea salt, pepper and extra virgin olive oil
+ drizzle with extra virgin olive oil