My Bell Pepper (and pasta sauce) Soup

Yeah.. so I'm shameless. But don't you hate how pasta recipes just seem to always call for one and three quarters of a jar of tomato sauce? Not two, but one and three quarters. You'd almost always find a jar of pasta sauce in my fridge, poor babe.

This was my cure for the poor quarter cup of pasta sauce languishing away..


Red Bell Pepper and Pasta Sauce Soup

And actually, I'm not ashamed, because it is so, sooooo damned good. I used to think that celery was the vegetable of choice (I've had 6 bowls of that stuff in the past two weeks. Just thinking of it should make any normal person shudder, but I'd gladly dig into some right now!) but guess what? This takes the cake. A rich, decadent cake..


Recipe


1 red bell pepper (red>orange>yellow, NO green!)
1/2 vidalia onion, coarsely diced
1/2 russet baking potato, skinned and coarsely diced
1.5 tbs butter
2 tbs garlic oil
1/2 cup good chicken stock
1.5 cups water
Leftover tomato-based pasta sauce (marinara's the best)-- up to 1/3 cup.
salt, pepper to taste


There is only one additional step to this recipe, other than that, it's basically the same Mother Vegetable Soup recipe-- and that is to blanch the pepper in hot water so that the skin peels right off. You could char it so the skin blisters, but hey, too much work.

Bring a medium pot of water to boil. Score the skin of the pepper at the ends and top and around the sides. Once the water comes to a rapid boil, lower the pepper in, and let it boil away for about 10 minutes, turning occasionally so that all sides are boiled thoroughly.

Pour the hot water away and fill the pot with cold water to cool the pepper down. When cool enough to handle, peel the skin off. If you can't get it all off, it's ok.

Roughly dice, and you're ready to rock and roll!

In the same pot (wiped down of course), add the butter and garlic oil and let it sizzle at medium heat. Add your diced onion AND the bell pepper so that the pepper gets some of that hot action.

Stir fry for about 5 minutes-- you'll see the onion turning translucent, then add your diced potato. Season with salt and coarse black pepper, add in your pasta sauce. Fry until the edges are slightly brown (about 5 more minutes(, then add in the chicken stock and water. Bring to a boil, and let it simmer for 20 minutes.

Turn off the heat and let it cool before attempting to blitz it in the blender.

You're basically following the same Mother Vegetable Soup Recipe.. except that this time, the liquids are altered to make way for the pasta sauce. Also, the serving size is smaller. It might be because I couldn't stop spooning the stuff from the blender straight to my watering mouth?

I can imagine this being an excellent side to a grilled cheese sandwich, or if you were to crack an egg into the pot while reheating/bowl before zapping in the microwave or, oh! meatballs! this soup could be a super hearty meal on its own. 

Looking forward to lunch tomorrow! PS: I have the worst lighting ever.