Roasted Tomato Soup Recipe for Canning

Directions

• Core out the stem area of the tomatoes, and cut them in half lengthwise. Then scoop out the seeds with a small spoon.
• Peel the onions and cut into quarters.
• Cut the red bell peppers in half and remove the seeds.
• Lay the tomatoes, onions, and peppers on baking sheets so the cut side is facing up. Season everything generously with Kosher salt and black pepper.
• Cut the pointy end off of each garlic bulb (slice through the entire bulb, un-peeled, exposing the ends of all the individual cloves).
• Drizzle some olive oil over the exposed end of each garlic bulb. Then wrap each bulb tightly in aluminum foil. Each garlic head should be wrapped separately in its own foil. Place the wrapped bulbs on a baking sheet.
• Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Roast all the vegetables and garlic for 90 minutes, or until the vegetables are lightly charred. You may need to remove the onions earlier than the tomatoes and peppers, as the onions will begin charring more quickly. You may also need to do this step in batches, if your oven isn’t large enough to hold all of the baking sheets (or if you don’t have enough baking sheets to fit everything at once).
• As the vegetables are ready, place them into a very large stock pot. Cover the pot with a lid to keep in the steam. When garlic is ready, carefully unwrap and squeeze the bulbs to push the individual cloves out. They will be extremely hot, so let them cool a bit first. Place the roasted garlic cloves into the pot with the vegetables.
• Place pot on the stove and turn to medium-high heat. Add the basil, Balsamic vinegar, and water. Once everything begins simmering, reduce heat to medium-low.
• Simmer everything for 20 minutes, stirring regularly.
• Blend everything in the pot. This can be done with an immersion blender or a standard blender. I like to give everything in the pot an initial blend with an immersion blender, and then carefully transfer it in batches to my countertop blender to make sure it’s blended extremely well.
• Place the blended soup back into a stock pot (either a separate pot, or clean out the original pot). Put over low heat on the stove to keep warm. At this time, taste for seasoning. You will probably need to add a very large pinch of salt.
• Optional step for extra-smooth soup: Using a fine mesh metal strainer, strain the soup through by ladling some soup into the strainer and pressing it through with the bottom of the ladle. The pulpy bits will remain in the strainer, and can be discarded or used for something else.
• Prepare quart mason jars and lids.
• Place 1/2 teaspoon of citric acid into each mason jar. Then ladle in the hot sauce, leaving 1/2 inch of headspace.
• De-bubble the jars and thoroughly wipe the rims clean.
• Process in a hot water bath canner for 1 hour and 25 minutes, (adjusting for altitude, if necessary).