Cream of Red Pepper Soup

Pepared by Jeffrey

INGREDIENTS
4 red bell peppers
2 tablespoons butter
1 onion, minced
1 sprig of fresh rosemary
1-1/4 quarts of chicken or light vegetable stock
3 tablespoons tomato paste
1/2 cup heavy cream (divided)
paprika
salt and freshly ground black pepper


METHOD

• Heat the broiler. Put the peppers in the broiler pan under high heat and turn them regularly until the skins blacken all around.  Put them into a plastic bag (or other large sealed container) and close.  Leave for 20 minutes.
• Peel the black skin off the peppers.  Avoid rinsing them because this loses some of the natural oil and hence the flavor.
• Halve the peppers, removing the seeds, stems and pith.  Roughly chop the flesh.
• Melt the button in a deep saucepan.  Add the onion and rosemary and cook slowly over low heat for about 5 minutes.  Remove the rosemary and discard.
• Add the peppers and stock to the onion and bring to a boil.  Simmer for 15 minutes.  Stir in the tomato paste.  Process or strain the soup to a smooth puree with a stick blender or regular blender.
• Stir in half the cream and season with paprika, salt, if necessary, and pepper.
• Serve the soup hot or chilled, with the remaining cream swirled delicately on top.  Speckle the cream very lightly with a pinch of paprika.

YEILD
Serves 4

RECIPE CREDIT
(From "The Soup Bible" - Anness Publishing - 2003)