Smoked Tomato Soup with Fried Mozzarella Square

Serves 8

Don’t miss out on the smoky taste of this soup! You can improvise a smoker in your BBQ with mesquite wood chips.

Soup:

• 3 ¾ cups chopped tomatoes
• ½ cup chopped red onions
• 3 large cloves chopped fresh garlic
• 1 ¼ cup chopped red bell pepper
• 1 cup chopped canned beets
• 1 ¼ cups chicken stock
• ¾ cup heavy cream
• 3 TB. sun dried tomato
• 2 TB. tomato paste
• ¼ tsp. salt
• dash of black pepper

Mozzarella Squares:

• 1 lb. mozzarella, cut into 8 - 2 oz. squares
• ¼ cup flour
• ¼ cup yellow corn meal
• pinch of salt & pepper
• pinch of granulated garlic
• 1 egg, scrambled
• ½ cup oil for frying

Lightly smoke all vegetables for 5 minutes in a smoker. If you do not have a smoker, place vegetables on a sheet pan and smoke in a covered BBQ using mesquite wood chips at about 300 degrees (low temp) for about 20 minutes.

Remove vegetables from smoker, place chicken stock, heavy cream, and tomato paste in a sauce pan. Add the smoked vegetables.

Simmer until vegetables are soft. Add salt and pepper.

Remove from heat and puree in a food processor.

Ladle soup into bowls and top each serving with a fried mozzarella square.

To make the Mozzarella Squares:

Mix all dry ingredients together.

Dip mozzarella square in the egg wash, then in the dry mixture.

heat oil in a sautee pan on medium heat and fry mozzarella squares until golden brown.