Tomato Soup and Grilled Cheese Inspired by Ina Garten

Nothing beats a classic comfort food on a cold snowy day and there is nothing more classic than grilled cheese with tomato soup.  One of my favorite things about cooking is the ability to customize a recipe to your own individual tastes An Ina Garten recipe inspired me to make this dish on a snowy day.  Although Ina is a cooking icon, I did make some slight changes to this dish.  My husband likes really creamy tomato soup, so I added 1/4 cup more cream than she does.  I also added some tomato paste that I had on hand to really thicken up the tomatoes and boost the tomato flavor.  Ina adds orzo to her soup and I would like to say I cut this for a very important culinary reason but I have to say it was simply because I was lazy and did not want to clean an additional pot.  Ina cuts her grilled cheese into croutons to serve over the soup, I didn't do that this time but that doesn't mean I will not do this in the future.  This recipe is too good not to make again.  

I like to call this grilled cheese Actual Grilled Cheese.  When I was a kid, it always confused you why it was called grilled cheese was it was made in a frying pan and not on a grill so I broke out my grill pan to make my grilled cheese.  Yes, I was a weird kid but I asked the important questions in life.

Ingredient Count: 9 (I only needed to buy 5)
Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup

Tomato Soup

3 Tbsp. Olive Oil
1 Yellow Onion, Chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
4 cups Chicken Broth
1 (28 oz) can crushed tomatoes
2 Tbsp. tomato paste
Pinch of saffron threads
3/4 cup heavy cream
Salt and pepper, to taste

(Actual) Grilled Cheese

Good sourdough bread, cut into 1/2 in. slices
2 Tbsp. butter, melted
4 Oz. Gruyere Cheese, grated


In a large pot (I use my dutch oven), heat the olive oil over medium heat.  Add the onions and cook on low for about 10 minutes.  Add the garlic, cook for 1 minute.  Pour in the broth, tomatoes, paste and saffron.  Salt and pepper.  Bring the soup to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes.  Stir in the cream and continue to simmer for 10 minutes.

While the soup is simmering, heat a grill pan.  Place the four slices of bread on a cutting board and brush lightly with the melted butter, being sure to butter the corners. Turn the slices over and pile Gruyere on two of the slices. Place the remaining two slices of bread on top of the Gruyere, buttered sides up. Once the grill is hot, add the sandwiched to the grill pan, cook for 2-3 minutes on each side until the bread is nicely browned and the cheese is melty.

Cut the sandwiches on the diagonal to dip in the soup and enjoy a nice comfort food meal on this snowed in day... Thanks winter storm Jonas