Okay. This one was great. From the cheesy chiabatta bread, to the basilly, garlicky, soup, to the delightful smell that is still pervading my kitchen, this is a must-make recipe. When I was trying to come up with something for soup week (I make a billion different kinds of soups already!), a friend of mine suggested a homemade tomato and grilled cheese. I found this recipe on Tasty Kitchen, and knew it was the right one.

This is what the tomatoes looked like after I tossed them with the oil, vinegar, and seasonings. I wanted to eat one right then, but restrained myself.

Here they are after roasting. The smell in my house was so heavenly! The garlic (the foil packet) did not get done in the time the recipe called for, and I had to cook it for an extra 15 minutes.

Here is the soup before I blended it…

And here it is after. I didn’t have an immersion blender (though I would really like one), but I blended the soup in four batches in my regular blender.

Here is the Gruyere-covered chiabatta bread. I really liked the chewy texture, but the hubby would prefer a French bread, so I’ll probably try that next time. Also, I reduced the red pepper flakes in the recipe to 1 tsp (rather than a tbsp) and it was still very spicy. I will probably just put a pinch in next time. Still, it was the best tomato soup I’ve ever had. Definitely will make this again!