Tomato-Parmesan Soup

Stupid question? I have parm rinds & they have mold on the outside of the rinds. Should I scrape off old mold first before using?

I always wrap my rinds in cheese cloth. Keeps the cheese from sticking to the pot.

where do you get the rinds

Halved the recipe because my husband “doesn’t like tomato soup.” Then he ate half of it. I used half white wine and half water instead of just water. It was perfectly spicy and tangy. I started to strain it like the recipe suggests, but ended up with thin tomato juice. So I stopped straining it and ate it straight from the blender. The texture was perfect. This is a great dish to keep in your back pocket for days you haven’t gone grocery shopping and still need to throw something together.

Sue - You need to buy a wedge of authentic Parmesan cheese. After grating the cheese, you'll have the rind leftover for using in soups and stews. They add a great flavor. Just store the rinds in the freezer until you need to use them.

Perfect as written, at least for me; I used certified San Marzano tomatoes. (I wouldn't use Muir Glen in this recipe; it is so simple, they will be too "exposed", plus you will probably need to strain as well as blend.) Makes for four, meaning four "cup" size portions, and I think that's right as it is too rich to want more. Would be a serious starter for a serious Italian meal. (Or French) But I enjoyed it with a grilled cheddar sandwich and a green salad! Simple and divine.

This is the best tomato soup I have ever made and I have made more tomatoes soups than I can count. Excellent as a starter for a dinner party.

I got a 3 lb bag of Grana Padano wheel rinds from a local chef that has so many he reluctantly throws them out. He hates that. It remain a magic ingredient. In veg broths it's awesome. Glutamic and lactic goodness I think. (Corn cob and parm rind broth is delicious.) I made this soup per recipe but added more water periodically, stirred every 10m to ensure extra parm extraction and emulsification and avoid accidental burn. I went two hours on simmer. No puree. Delicious. Easy.

Delicious and easy! Cautionary notes: don't blend it without removing the parmesan cheese rind - lots of work scrubbing the cheese off the immersion blender blade, and don't use too much of the red pepper flakes (test them first to see if they are super spicy) - I had to dilute the soup to make it palatable :(

Place your parm rinds in a piece of cheesecloth that is large enough to completely hold them. Gather the cheesecloth up ( to make like a little purse ) in the middle and tie a tight knot with some kitchen twine. Place it in the soup pot with the rest of the ingredients. No more sticky cheese on the pot! At the end of cooking, simply lift it out.

Low-quality cheese??? Either you buy and cook with authentic Parmigiano-Reggiano or you cook a dish that's not Italian.

Crazy simple. Great flavor. Might add a bit more of the red pepper flakes next time. With Muir Glen organic tomatoes, the final color was almost as red as the picture. On the occasional stir, tried to leave the parm rind (cut in half to reduce weight) resting on top of a tomato at the soup’s surface to keep it from sticking to the pot, which another fellow cook warned about. Served with grilled cheese sandwiches (sharp Irish cheddar), as Sam suggested he would. Yum.

If you don't blend this soup, it makes a very good tomato sauce for pasta.

Cooking with Parmesan rind gives nice depth. Great that it is so simple--perfect for when you're running low on ingredients! I swirled a dollop of whole milk kefir into the soup when I served it for extra richness and to balance the red pepper

Loved the soup. Had a mild spicy kick from the red peppers. Most of my parmesan grind melted in the soup, though, and was a sloppy mess to take out. Maybe I just bought low quality cheese. Anyway, the color turned out more orange than the red display picture. Would give it a 4/5.