Tomato Bisque

Essentially, tomato bisque soup is just tomato soup made with milk.  To be a true bisque it needs to be both smooth and creamy.  Substituting milk for water when making tomato soup from a can is the easiest way of making tomato bisque.

This recipe is slightly more than that, but it's just as simple.  There are only a few ingredients:

1 10 3/4 ounce can tomato soup 
Whole milk
1 14 1/2 ounce can diced tomatoes
1 cup heavy cream
1 Tablespoon basil (or 1 teaspoon fresh basil, finely chopped)

Diced tomatoes are lumpy, so to start with, we need to make the soup smooth.  In a blender, combine the diced tomatoes with the tomato soup and the basil.  Fill the soup can with whole milk and add that.  Blend the entire thing until it's smooth.  I haven't tried doing this in a food processor but that would probably work as well.

It will look like this:

Very slowly stir in the cream and using a very low heat, bring it to a simmer.

You can garnish with fresh basil sprigs and/or a dollop of sour cream.  Croutons are also a nice addition.  I'll be serving it with grilled cheese sandwiches.

Bon appétit!