Where to get tomatoes?

[nightscotsman]

What do you think of oven roasting the tomatoes before adding them to the soup? Too much?

I saw this on America's Test Kitchen and had to give it a try. It really intensified the flavor of the tomatoes - almost too much. It also added a lot of depth and complexity since they actually start to carmelize in spots. I don't think I would do it with dead-ripe home-grown tomatoes, but for supermarket specimens or even canned it would be a huge improvement.

[SparrowsFall]

What do you think of oven roasting the tomatoes before adding them to the soup? Too much?

I saw this on America's Test Kitchen and had to give it a try. It really intensified the flavor of the tomatoes - almost too much. It also added a lot of depth and complexity since they actually start to carmelize in spots. I don't think I would do it with dead-ripe home-grown tomatoes, but for supermarket specimens or even canned it would be a huge improvement.

Cooks Illustrated (the folks behind ATK, of course) recommended this for winter tomato soup made from canned tomatoes, I think. I haven't tried it. But what nightscotsman said. My approach to this with really good tomatoes is to cook them as little as possible, with the goal to retain as much of that fresh summer flavor as possible. I've even food-processed then strained them without cooking; they get cooked a little when you heat up the soup in February.