Recently I received an email from Annelie B. asking, “I was out for dinner - we had tomato soup baked with pastry on top - how do I do that? ”

So I asked my friend Chef Jennifer Field what she would do and her reply is below. I thought it was interesting that she gave the ingredients to me in grams and not ounces. I asked Chef Jenni about this and will offer you her response in an upcoming blog. I have included the conversions to exact measurements but I would round them off if I were making this but we will learn more about that in Chef Jenni’s response.

“Spooning down through a pastry crust to get to the tomato soup underneath–sounds like a winner! And easy to do at home, as well. You can either make a savory pie crust yourself….

Ingredients

420 g (14.82 oz.) all purpose flour
10 g (0.35 oz.) salt
200 g (7.05oz.) butter
4 oz. cold water.

How to Make a Pastry Crust For Tomato Soup

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Mix flour and salt in a large bowl. Cut in butter with your fingers until the flour is very mealy and you can’t see individual pieces of butter. Do this quickly–you want to keep things cold so you don’t end up making paste.

Put 2-3 ice cubes in your water, then drizzle in about 1 oz. of water at a time. In between drizzles, toss the flour with the water to evenly distribute it. When you get about 3 1/2 oz. of water incorporated, test it by squeezing a bit of the dough together (it won’t look like dough until you squeeze it). If it’s not staying together, add the rest of the water. If it is staying together, resist the urge to add more water and compress the dough into a disc. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Roll between two sheets of parchment to about 1/8 - 1/4 inch thick. Cut to fit over your soup crock, and press the edges down around the crock with hot soup in it. Brush with 1 egg beaten with 2 teaspoons of water.

Bake at 325 degrees for about 15 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown and delicious. For an added treat, sprinkle a layer of cheese on top of the soup before you put on the crust, or grate on some cheese during the last 5 minutes of baking.

…or,if that seems way too much like work, and I wouldn’t much blame you if it does, use frozen ready-made puff pastry, available in the freezer aisle. Thaw it in the fridge overnight, cut to fit and bake according to the package directions.”

Yay, soup!