Late last month, I read about about Tweeter Brian Gorman who made a project of cooking as many recipes from Mollie Katzen‘s Moosewood Cookbook as possible . Just as I was thinking that would be an awesome plan for 2022, Mollie Katzen herself posted an encouragement to the Twitterverse:

Anyone want to do the same as Brian and go on a Moosewood Cookbook recipe bender for 2022? I’d be delighted to converse with you here along the way.

along with a request to tag posts and photos with #Moosewood2022. So here I am in the first days of 2022 posting a recipe from my revisit to a well-loved copy (copyright 1977!) of Moosewood: Spicy Tomato Soup (page 4).

Living in the New England tundra in January means our fresh tomatoes are usually hard nubs of something trucked in from a warmer climate – not great for the palate or for my carbon footprint. However, that logistical problem didn’t stop me from making this deliciously warming soup. I opened up a can of whole plum tomatoes, chopped them, and threw them into the pot. I’ll have to wait until August when our fresh tomatoes are abundantly available to make a taste comparison, but my initial thinking is, not bad.

After such a difficult December, it’s nice to have new challenges to look forward to and, for me, cooking at least one recipe a week from Moosewood is something I plan to do. Challenge accepted.

Ingredients:

• 1-1/2 c minced onion
• 3 cloves crushed garlic
• 1 TBSP butter
• 1 TBSP olive oil
• 1 tsp dill weed (I used fresh)
• 1/2 tsp (or more) black pepper
• 1 2-lb can of crushed, concentrated tomatoes plus 2 cups stock or water OR 6 cups chopped tomatoes plus their liquid (I used the crushed)
• 1 TBSP honey
• 1 TBSP mayonnaise or sour cream (I used nonfat Greek yogurt)
• 2 medium fresh tomatoes, chopped (used canned plums because it’s winter here)
• yogurt, parsley and scallions for the topping

Method

1. Sauté onions and garlic with salt in combined olive oil and butter in a large kettle or large saucepan. Cook five minutes until translucent.
2. Add dill, pepper,tomatoes and honey.
3. Cover and simmer at least 45 minutes on low heat.
4. Five minutes before serving, whisk in mayonnaise or sour cream (or in my case, Greek yogurt). Taste to correct seasonings.
5. Serve hot, topped with yogurt, chopped parsley and scallions.