Tomato, Basil and Zucchini Soup

From Hungry, Guy Mirabella, Plum, 2011.

Suddenly the weather turned cold. We had had several days of heat and then down we dropped to 17ºC. I needed a warming soup.

I chopped an onion, a carrot and a celery stalk and added them to a large saucepan to cook slowly in olive oil until softened. I now added 2 chopped garlic cloves, 2 red chillies deseeded and sliced and a teaspoon of fennel seeds. These were cooked for another 2 minutes.

It was now time for the zucchini to go in. The recipe called for 1kg; I only had 800g and this seemed heaps to me. Anyway, I roughly cut them in pieces and added them to the saucepan and let them cook for a few more minutes. Two cans of chopped tomatoes now went in the saucepan with two cans of water. It was brought to the boil, then reduced to a simmer and let cook for an hour.

The soup now was taken from the heat and a large handful of torn basil leaves were added. A stick blender was used to churn the ingredients. The soup was tasted for seasoning and needed salt, but had heaps of heat from the chillies that seemed to be nice and hot.

When served a dribble of extra virgin olive oil was added and a sprinkling of freshly grated Parmesan cheese.

This was just what I wanted and satisfied my need. It was hot and very spicy, quite thick from all those zucchini and tangy from the tomatoes and basil.

Taste: ✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔✔