TOPAZ HORIZON

Tonight, I made pomodoro soup for the first time. Now, I love tomatoes--I bite into tomatoes like they're apples, I drown a lot of my food in catsup, I love tomato sauce-based food and I absolutely love tomato soup. I'm so full of lycopene I hardly ever need lipstick or blush!

Last weekend, I found a recipe for classic Tuscan pomodoro soup in this month's issue of InStyle. And because I always want to make a recipe my own, I tweaked it a bit!

Chop chop chop 3 large cloves of garlic. I love garlic. Love it! I think all my favorite food has a healthy helping of garlic.

Tear apart a handful of fresh basil leaves. This smells fantastic--made my mouth water for the tomato feast to come!

Cut 3 slices of old white bread into 1/2-inch cubes. I used the last slices of my week-old Gardenia white loaf.

Pour 3 tablespoons of the best olive oil you can find into a saucepan over medium heat.

Add garlic then basil and a teaspoon of McCormick's Italian Seasoning--a secret my friend Mariel shared with me. By the way, the garlic, basil and dried herbs smell heavenly!

When the garlic and leaves look golden and toasted, stir in chopped tomatoes. I used the entire can of Hunt's Whole Roasted Tomatoes (that's about 1.7 lbs). Don't pour in all the sauce, by the way, just half a cup. When it begins to boil, reduce heat and simmer for about 10 minutes. Stir the pot a lot!

Add bread and 3 cups of water. Turn up the heat again until it boils, then bring down the heat for simmering time. Stir constantly, breaking up the bread and tomatoes (press against the sides of the pot).

Season with salt and pepper. I used about a tablespoon of rock salt and a generous helping of freshly cracked pepper. I know that's a lot but it's a lot of soup, too. Simmer away for about 5 minutes.

Ladle immediately into a bowl or big mug (sprinkle fresh basil leaves and drizzle olive oil on top) and serve with grilled fish or grilled chicken and red wine. We had Minute Maid's new Mango-Orange juice, though--and it is very good!

Oh, this soup was so rich, hearty and good! Really really good--the stuff of cold nights, happy laughter and heartfelt conversations. Vince loved it. Yey!