Recipe for Dragon’s Blood: Tomato Soup with Pesto Crostini

Serves 5.

The soup is a scary red colour hence the name, especially for Halloween.

We worked for a long time to try and make this soup reasonably foolproof. Good quality tinned tomatoes (another must for your store cupboard) give a really good result. Homemade tomato purée, although delicious can give a more variable result depending on the quality of the tomatoes.

2 x 14 oz (400g) tins of tomatoes, liquidised and sieved

1 small onion, finely chopped

2 oz (15g) butter

8 fl ozs (250ml) Bechamel sauce (see recipe below)

8 fl ozs (250ml) homemade chicken stock or vegetable stock salt, freshly ground pepper and sugar

4 fl ozs (120ml) cream

Pesto - see below

6 crostini made from 1/3 inch (5mm) thick slices of thin French bread cooked in olive oil until crisp and pale golden

Sweat the onion in the butter on a gentle heat until soft, not coloured. Add chopped tinned tomatoes plus juice, white sauce and homemade chicken stock. Season with salt, freshly ground pepper and sugar. Bring to the boil and simmer for a few minutes.

Liquidise, taste, dilute further if necessary. Bring back to the boil, correct seasoning add a little cream if necessary.

Put a little blob of pesto on 6 freshly cooked crostini and drop one into each serving.

Note: This soup needs to be tasted carefully as the final result depends on the quality of the tomato purée, stock, etc.