Not a great pic, but seriously, this soup was ‘the shit’.

Arriving home very late after a rather long Monday at work, I was greeted by Niall offering up a bowl of this scrumptious soup.

It’s from the Anthony Worrell Thompson GI Diet book.  It’s a really hearty soup, that really is more of a main course than a starter.

We had a few cherry tomatoes and sweet santini tomatoes in the fridge that needed using.  These went into the soup and probably lended to the very sweet intense taste of the final product.

Niall improvised by adding one or two naughty things that perhaps didn’t help the whole GI thing but what the hell, it was gorgeous.

What you need for TuscanTomato and Bread Soup for 4 big helpings

1 onion, fniely chopped

2 garlic cloves, crushed

1 kg (2 1/4 lb) ripe tomatoes, peeled, de-seeded and chopped

1 tin of chopped tomatoes

4 thick slices of wohlegrain bread, roughly broken

Pancetta, chopped (optional)

Bunch of basil

Salt and pepper

Parmesan, grated, for sprinkling over the top

Heat some oil in a large saucepan.  Add the onion and garlic, and fry on a meium heat until the onion is soft but not brown.

Add the fresh tomatoes (don’t forget to peel them, even though it’s a bit faffy, but otherwise you’ll get tomato skins in your soup, no no No my friend!) and cook for 1 minute.  Add the tinned tomatoes, bread and basil, leaving a few basil leaves aside for later.

Meanwhile, fry the pancetta in a separate pan.

Simmer the tomato sauce for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, adding up to 600 ml (1 pint) of water to give it a soupy consistency.  Towards the end of the 15 minutes, add the fried pancetta.

Before plating up, season with pepper and fold in the left over basil leaves.

Serve with grated parmesan on top.  Win!