Sarra Barefoot Contessa cream of fresh tomato soup is a smooth, velvety soup made with 4 pounds of vine-ripened tomatoes, red onions, carrots, garlic, fresh basil, chicken stock, and heavy cream, passed through a food mill for a silky finish. No canned tomatoes, no roasting. It serves 5 to 6 and takes about an hour from cutting board to table.
This recipe comes from Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics, and Ina says it’s “a great soup to make in September when there are still tons of vine-ripened tomatoes in the market and you’ve eaten your fill of tomato salads.” She garnishes it with julienned basil leaves and Parmesan toasts: baguette slices brushed with olive oil, covered in grated Parmesan, and baked at 400F (200C) until golden. It’s a September-specific recipe designed for the window when farmers’ market tomatoes are peaking.
The food mill is the technique that makes this soup worth making. It strains out every seed and scrap of skin while keeping the full, thick tomato pulp intact. A blender processes the skins into the soup and can make it slightly bitter. A food processor leaves chunks. The food mill gives you the cleanest, smoothest fresh tomato flavor with no grit.
Barefoot Contessa Cream of Fresh Tomato Soup Recipe
Course: SoupsCuisine: AmericanDifficulty: Easy6
servings15
minutes45
minutes250
kcalA late-summer soup from Ina’s Back to Basics cookbook that lets ripe, in-season tomatoes do all the work. The heavy cream and food mill turn 4 pounds of fresh tomatoes into something closer to velvet than soup. Serve it with Ina’s Parmesan toasts for a September lunch that’s hard to beat.
Ingredients
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For the Soup:
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3 tablespoons good olive oil
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1 1/2 cups chopped red onions (2 onions)
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2 carrots, unpeeled and chopped
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1 tablespoon minced garlic (3 cloves)
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4 lb (1.8kg) vine-ripened tomatoes, coarsely chopped (5 large)
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1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
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1 tablespoon tomato paste
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1/4 cup packed chopped fresh basil leaves
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3 cups (720ml) chicken stock, preferably homemade
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1 tablespoon kosher salt
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2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
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3/4 cup (180ml) heavy cream
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Julienned fresh basil leaves, for garnish
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Flaked sea salt, for finishing
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For the Parmesan Toasts:
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1 French baguette
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Good olive oil
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Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
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Freshly grated Parmesan cheese (grated on a box grater)
Directions
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Sauté the aromatics: Heat the olive oil in a large, heavy-bottomed pot over medium-low heat. Add the red onions and carrots and sauté for about 10 minutes until very tender. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute.
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Simmer the tomatoes: Add the chopped tomatoes, sugar, tomato paste, basil, chicken stock, salt, and pepper. Stir well, bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer uncovered for 30 to 40 minutes until the tomatoes are very tender and falling apart.
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Puree through a food mill: Add the cream to the soup. Pass the entire pot through a food mill fitted with the coarsest blade into a large bowl, discarding only the dry pulp left behind. This removes the skins and seeds while keeping the rich tomato body.
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Serve: Reheat the soup over low heat just until hot. Ladle into bowls, scatter julienned basil on top, finish with a sprinkling of sea salt, and serve with Parmesan toasts on the side.
- Make the Parmesan toasts: Preheat the oven to 400F (200C). Slice the baguette diagonally into 1/4-inch-thick slices. Place on a parchment-lined sheet pan, brush with olive oil, and sprinkle with salt, pepper, and a thick layer of grated Parmesan. Bake for 5 to 10 minutes until lightly browned. Cool to room temperature before serving.
FAQs
Why does Ina use fresh tomatoes instead of canned?
This recipe is built for September, when vine-ripened tomatoes are at their peak. Fresh tomatoes at the height of summer have a sweetness, acidity, and depth that canned tomatoes can’t match, no matter how good the brand.
Ina uses canned tomatoes in her other tomato soups when the season doesn’t matter. Her Roasted-Tomato Basil Soup in The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook uses both fresh and canned. Her Easy Tomato Soup in Foolproof uses all canned San Marzano. This recipe is specifically for the two or three weeks a year when fresh tomatoes are perfect, so substituting canned would miss the whole point.
How is this different from Ina’s Roasted Tomato Basil Soup?
They start from opposite directions. The Roasted Tomato Basil Soup from The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook roasts fresh plum tomatoes at 400F for 45 minutes to caramelize them, then combines them with canned tomatoes and four cups of basil. There’s no cream. The flavor is deep, sweet, and smoky from the oven.
This Cream of Fresh Tomato Soup uses raw vine-ripened tomatoes simmered on the stovetop with just a touch of tomato paste and a quarter cup of basil. The heavy cream makes it rich and velvety. The flavor is brighter and more delicate because the tomatoes were never roasted. One is a year-round soup, the other is a celebration of peak-season tomatoes.
Can you use a blender instead of a food mill?
You can, but the texture changes noticeably. A food mill catches every seed and skin fragment and pushes only the smooth tomato pulp through. A blender processes the skins into the soup, which can add a faint bitterness and a slightly grainy mouthfeel.
If you don’t own a food mill, blend the soup and then pour it through a fine-mesh strainer, pressing with the back of a spoon to push the pulp through. You’ll lose a little volume but the result is much closer to the clean, smooth texture Ina is after. A food processor leaves the soup too chunky for this recipe.
Why add sugar to a fresh tomato soup?
The teaspoon and a half of sugar isn’t there to make the soup sweet. It’s a small correction for natural acidity. Even the best vine-ripened tomatoes have enough acid to make a soup taste sharp after simmering for 40 minutes.
The sugar rounds that edge off without making the soup taste sweet at all. If your tomatoes are perfectly ripe and bursting with natural sugar, you can taste the soup before adding it and decide. But in most cases, even great tomatoes benefit from that small nudge.
Does cream of fresh tomato soup store well?
It keeps in the fridge for up to 3 days. Reheat gently over low heat and don’t let it boil, because the cream can break and leave oily streaks on the surface if it gets too hot.
Freezing works for up to 2 months, but the cream can separate slightly when thawed. Whisk the soup vigorously after reheating to bring it back together, or stir in a splash of fresh cream to smooth it out. The Parmesan toasts are best made fresh since they lose their crunch after a day, but you can recrisp stored toasts in a 350F (180C) oven for 3 to 4 minutes.
