Chunky Cheesy Tomato Soup made Easy

Mother nature decided to step it up a notch this past week. If we Helsinkians were starting to get a little too comfortable with mediocre winter weather, She certainly set out to give us a rude awakening. And being that it's only mid-February, there's plenty of winter time still before us. In fact, being that there are so many words in Finnish for 'snow', I'm surprised these long winters haven't been broken down into sub-seasons. If I would invent them now, I might start with the windy-wet winter (part I), icy-dark (part II), soup-subseason (part III), sunny-slow-thaw (part IV). I now dub this soup season!

So inspired recently by a conversation with my friend E, I decided to make some fresh tomato soup. We were just chatting about what to do with leftover Koskenlaskija and she mentioned that it's delicious in tomato soup, so I had to try.

• 1 lbs fresh tomatoes or two cans of peeled diced tomatoes
• 4 cups vegetable bullion
• 3 tbs olive oil
• 1 carrot, sliced
• 1 potato, diced
• 1 onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, sliced
• 4 tbs tomato paste
• salt and pepper to taste
• basil and oregano
• Koskenlaskija cheese, cubed, to taste (optional)- can be substituted for another soft meltable cheese (suggestions welcome) or cooking cream.

1. If using fresh tomatoes, first, blanch the tomatoes by cutting a small x in the bottom of the tomato and cover lightly with water. Bring to a boil for several minutes. Drain and rinse with ice water.
2. Cook the onion and garlic in the olive oil for several minutes in a large dutch oven or pot. Add salt pepper and herbs and cook for a few more minutes.
3. Add the stock, carrot and potato and turn the heat down. Cover.
4. Now that the tomatoes have cooled a bit, peel the skins off. (or just open the can!) Add to the broth. Simmer, 30-45 minutes until everything is tender. Or longer if you have the time. The flavours will set nicely.
5. Add the tomato paste and cheese. Without the cheese, the soup is still nice and creamy, thanks to the potato. But the cheese gives a nice smokey and rich taste. Even just a little goes a long way.
6. Blend about half of the soup in the blender and return to the rest of the soup.

Thanks E, for giving me a new way to incorporate Koskenlaskija into my recipes. It's nice cheese with a subtle yet distinct flavor, and it's not always easy to imagine where to add this. But I'm determined not to waste any of it!