Yellow Tomato Soup

Supposedly, colorful heirloom tomatoes are passed down through generations like delicate linens and fine china. Brian and I inherited tomatoes, too, but they're more of the free-on-Craigslist variety than intergenerational family treasure.

Our home's previous owner left a sizable flower/herb/vegetable garden. The piece de resistance: a huge tangle of fragrant green vines and leaves, small yellow pear tomatoes dangling throughout like big old-fashioned Christmas lights.

I don't know much about gardening, but I can tell when a tomato is ripe. These were jumping off the vine, almost over-ripe. I dove in with bare hands, and emerged stained green up to my elbows, with a full basket and the scent of tomato leaf everywhere.

The first batch I picked was too ripe for eating raw, and the weather was an excellent tomato-soup grey and windy, so I searched for a yellow-tomato soup recipe and found this. It's not Campbell's tomato. It's got more texture, less acid, and starchy potato flavor. Super sweet yellow tomatoes and caramelized shallots plus butter mean this is creamy and sweet, not a challenging flavor profile (sorry Top Chef cheftestants). I mostly skimmed the recipe for ingredients then made it up as I went along -- no fancy technique, just quick use of my indispensable immersion blender. :) 

Tomatoes roasted:

Simmered:

Pureed: