At Repast in Atlanta, Georgia—a
casual yet elegant neighborhood restaurant featuring New American cuisine
with a metropolitan flair—the husband and wife culinary team of Joe
Truex and Mihoko Obunai explores the tomato-fennel
marriage in the form of a soup.
Although
ingredients for the cuisine at Repast are sourced from around the world,
Obunai and Truex show their appreciation for seasonal produce in this
dish. When juicy, vine-ripe, fresh tomatoes are available in the summer,
Truex suggests peeling, seeding and chopping up about four of them to use
in place of the canned product called for in the recipe.
At Repast, this
soup is served with a sprinkling of salt, cracked peppercorns and whole
fennel seed on the underplate so guests can season the soup to their own
taste. This soup is delicious
served either hot or cold.
TOMATO
FENNEL SOUP
Yield: 4 1-cup servings
1 15-ounce can
of tomatoes, chopped, with
juice
2 cups vegetable or chicken stock
2 cups chopped fresh fennel, reserve lacy tops
for garnish
½ cup dry white wine
½ cup chopped onion
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon salt
1 bay leaf
pinch of hot red pepper flakes
1/8 teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoons tomato paste
anisette or Pernod for garnish
Mix tomatoes and juice, stock,
fennel, wine, onion, garlic, salt, bay leaf, red pepper flakes and sugar
in a 3-quart saucepan. Bring it to a boil, then reduce the heat, cover,
and simmer for about 45 minutes. Add the tomato paste and boil hard for a
few minutes to concentrate the flavors. Purée, then press through a sieve
or strainer. Discard the solids.
If you will be serving the soup
cold, season it a little more and thoroughly chill it before serving.
Ladle the soup into bowls and then
stir 1/2 teaspoon of anisette or Pernod into each bowl and top each bowl
with a lacy fennel frond, if desired. You might also finely dice some
extra raw fennel and sprinkle it into each serving to add some crunch.
