Ingredients
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4 cups whole milk
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3 (14 ounce) cans diced tomatoes, drained (or use fresh!)
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2 tablespoons tomato paste
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1 medium onion, chopped
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salt and pepper
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1 teaspoon sugar
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4 tablespoons all-purpose flour
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2 tablespoons butter, cut in pieces
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1 stalk celery, coarsely chopped
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2 cloves garlic
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12 ounces basil or 12 ounces cilantro
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1/2 cup pine nuts or 1/2 cup pecans
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1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil, eyeball it
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2 cloves cracked garlic
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1/4 teaspoon ground or grated nutmeg
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salt and pepper
Instructions
- Heat the milk over moderate heat in a medium pot.
- Put tomatoes, tomato paste, onions, salt and pepper, sugar, flour, butter, and celery into a food processor and grind until smooth.
- Pour mixture into milk and raise heat to bring soup to a boil.
- Reduce heat and then simmer 15 minutes.
- While soup cooks, make pesto, if not using storebought.
- Fill the food processor with watercress, loosely packed.
- Add hazelnuts, 1/2 of the oil and garlic cloves to the watercress in the processor.
- Add nutmeg, salt and pepper to the processor bowl, set lid in place and pulse grind the mixture into a thick paste.
- Add any remaining watercress to the processor and grind into the paste by pulsing the processor again.
- Transfer watercress paste to a bowl.
- Stir in the remaining oil and the cheese.
- Taste pesto sauce and adjust seasonings.
- Pour soup into shallow bowls and add a couple of rounded spoonfuls of pesto to each dish and stir it into the soup.