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
3/4 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
PROCEDURE:
- 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.
