Essence of tomatoes
Serves 4
Easy
Total time:
Ready in 40 - 50 mins
Make Raymond Blanc's flavoursome tomato soup up to 1 day ahead, and keep chilled
Skip to ingredients
- 2 ½kg cherry vine-ripened tomatoroughly chopped
- 1 stick celeryfinely chopped
- 1 small shallotfinely chopped
- half fennelbulb, finely chopped
- 1 small garlic clovefinely chopped
- 2 sprigs thymeroughly chopped
- 4 leaves tarragonroughly chopped
- handful basilleaves, roughly chopped
- 1 tbsp golden caster sugar
- 2 pinches cayenne pepper
- 5 drops Worcestershire sauce
- 3 drops Tabasco sauce
To serve
- 4 basilleaves, finely sliced, plus 4 small sprigs
- 6 large plum vine tomatoesskinned, seeded and finely diced
- good-quality extra-virgin olive oil
Nutrition: per serving
- kcal141
- fat3g
- saturates0g
- carbs25g
- sugars4g
- fibre7g
- protein6g
- salt0.3glow
Method
step 1
In a large bowl mix all the ingredients together with 1 tbsp sea salt, cover with cling film and marinate for 6 hrs. Then, in a food processor, pulse the tomato mix in batches until roughly chopped – don’t over-chop them to a mush.
step 2
Place three layers of muslin cloth, or a new kitchen cloth, over a large bowl and pour the mix into the cloth. Tie up with string and hang in a cold place for at least 15 mins over the bowl to collect the tomato essence. Set aside the pulp. Taste and correct the seasoning, if necessary, then cool in the fridge.
step 3
To serve, spoon a quarter of the diced tomato into the centre of four bowls. Carefully pour the chilled tomato essence around the tomato towers and garnish with the basil and a small drizzling of olive oil.
