Sleepy Sunday Soup

Soooooo tired...It's so warm in here, and I actually had a glass of wine, which I rarely do...so sleepy...must post something...must...stay awake...zkhax...Oh! I'm awake. I'm awake!

Can I get away with a quick recap and a recipe? Oh, good. Quick recap...breaking news!!! THE NEIGHBOUR MISSED SUNDAY SOUP. She almost made it to the one year mark with a perfect record! Even we don't have a perfect record, but rumour has it she not only missed SS, but left the island (not permanently, but for a short holiday or something). Anyway, that was a big surprise.

We did have a new guest and she will be referred to as The Hairdresser. This is because we met after I saw her picture on Facebook (another friend posted pictures of a party we were both at) and I messaged her to tell her I loved her haircut and I wanted to know who cut it. Turns out that while she's actually in construction, she cuts her own hair. I was so inspired that this week I cut off all my hair (think: more hair than a Marine, but not by much). Anyway, she had to see my haircut (and yes, even trim it up a bit in back and show me how to use some product to make it really stylin' - or it will be after the baldy bits over my ears grow in a little) and that's how we met. Anyway, The Hairdresser is lovely and we are so glad to have met her and we hope she'll come back again soon (and if she's reading this and wondering why I'm calling her that, it's because everyone has a nickname at Sunday Soup).

The Fix-it Guy and The Musician (brown as a berry from a month in Mexico) dropped in as well. And now, here's your recipe since I'm zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.......................

Red Pepper Orange Soup with Ricotta Dumplings
(soup is original, based on a few others – dumplings are from The Ultimate Soup Cookbook)
This makes a lot of soup – about 7-8 quarts. You could easily halve it. Half would serve about 6.
3 carrots – peeled, sliced
3 medium red potatoes, diced
2 medium onions, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 28oz can crushed tomatoes
6 red bell peppers
Water
Orange juice
Thyme
Salt & pepper
Olive Oil

Halve and seed red peppers, place face down on an oiled baking sheet or glass pan. Roast for 30 minutes at 400. Remove from oven, allow to cool some, and then peel the skins off carefully. Chop roughly. (the roasting step is optional, alternatively, you can just dice the peppers and add to onion mixture and sauté, but the roasting adds flavour).
In a large stockpot over medium heat, cook onions until translucent. Add garlic, potatoes, carrots. Cook 5 minutes or so, stirring occasionally. Add Thyme, salt and pepper to taste (you’ll add more later, but it’s good to get a bit in from the beginning). Add roasted red pepper. Cover veggies with water, add canned tomatoes, bring to a boil and reduce to simmer. Simmer until veggies are tender (around 20-30 minutes).
Remove from heat. Mashing the veggies with a potato masher at this point helps, but is optional. Puree with a handheld immersion blender. If you don’t have one, you can use a regular blender and do it in batches, but LET THE SOUP COOL FIRST!!! or it will blow off the top of your blender! Not pretty.
When the soup is pureed, add orange juice. I think I put in about 2 cups, but honestly, I just did it by taste. Also, adjust seasonings at this time. That’s it. Yumm!
The red pepper flavour is very mild. You could reduce the potatoes and add more peppers if you like it stronger.

Ricotta Dumplings
This recipe is from the Ultimate Soup Cookbook, but I’ve altered it just a tiny bit.
1 cup of ricotta cheese
1 egg
½ cup flour
½ tsp salt
3 TBS fresh parsley
Mix all the ingredients together. Bring a large pot of water to boil and then reduce it to simmer. Drop spoonfuls of dough into the water, cover, cook 10 minutes. Remove with slotted spoon to a plate to drain a little. Do in several batches unless you have a very wide pot because they’ll fuse together if they’re crowded into it. Place a couple of dumplings in each soup bowl and top with soup. You could put them into the pot, but they break apart some and so I think putting them in each bowl works best.