Roasted-Tomato Basil Soup & Parmesan Croutons

We love the tomato basil soup from La Madeleine so I was excited to try to make some myself. I followed the recipe exactly with the exception of cutting it in half...I'm only cooking for two so half the recipe was plenty enough. This recipe calls for red pepper flakes, which surprised me, and we actually thought it had too much kick...even my husband who's from Louisiana and likes everything spicy! Since there is also black pepper, it just turned out to be a little too peppery (sp?). This is saying a lot because I love pepper and will put it on most anything! Other than that, it was very tasty! Next time I make it, I will probably leave out the red pepper flakes all together and wait until the end to add the black pepper to taste. (and yes, I did double check to make sure that I used HALF of both the red pepper flakes and the black pepper...so that is not why it was over-peppered!)

Edited: I forgot to mention that instead of using a food mill like Ina says (don't have one or even know what that is...), I used the blender to mix it all up. We don't have a large enough food processor, but if you do you could use that.

The parmesan croutons caught my eye and I thought they'd go perfectly with this soup, so I made those as well...delicious!!! (except I did put too much salt on my first batch - learned my lesson there. Ina said to "sprinkle liberally"...well I was a little too liberal with my sprinkling!) I made them again tonight (because they are sooooooo good!!) and used less salt but added garlic powder. They were even better with the garlic powder. I think these would make a tasty appetizer as well.

We always eat tomato basil soup with grilled chicken caesar salad. I broke up the parmesan croutons and put them in my salad, too...mmm!