Tomato soup with vegetables and pasta

Prepare all the ingredients for tomato soup with vegetables and pasta. You can use either zucchini or squash, or replace these vegetables with potatoes. In the off-season, fresh tomatoes can be easily replaced with tomatoes in their own juice. The taste of the soup depends on the spices used. In my opinion, basil fits best here. I try to use either fresh or frozen basil. Dried basil doesn't have the same flavor. It is better to use small-sized pasta made from hard wheat varieties. Olive oil can be easily substituted with butter, vegetable oil, or ghee. You only need a little bit for lightly frying the vegetables for the soup.

Remove the skin from the tomatoes. To do this, wash the tomatoes, put them in a deep bowl, pour boiling water over them, and let them sit for about 30 seconds to a minute.

Then, pour out the water and immediately pour in cold water, which you will also drain after around 30 seconds. Now, make a cross-shaped incision on the tomato, and the skin will easily peel off without any problems.

Cut the tomato into 2-4 pieces and remove the stem. If the tomatoes are watery, it is better to remove the liquid and most of the seeds, as these seeds may not be very pleasant in the soup. However, if you have meaty tomatoes, there are very few seeds, and no additional actions are needed. By the way, if all your tomatoes are watery, you can take a bit more, around 200 grams.

Put the tomato pieces in a blender and blend until smooth.

If the zucchini is young, simply cut it into cubes. If the vegetable is older and coarser, it is better to thinly peel off the skin and remove the fibrous core with seeds. The same goes for oversized zucchini.

Peel the onion and carrot. Cut the onion into small cubes, grate the carrot, and cut the peeled zucchini into small cubes slightly larger than one centimeter.

Peel the garlic and pass it through a press. Alternatively, finely chop it with a knife. Finely chop the basil leaves together with the tender stems. If the stems are tough, it is better to discard them. Alternatively, you can add them to the soup for more flavor and remove them after cooking.

You can sauté the vegetables in the same thick-walled pot in which the soup will be cooked. Sauté the diced onions over medium heat with olive oil until lightly browned.

Then add the carrots and zucchini cubes to the pot. Sauté for another minute or two.

Next comes the garlic and tomato paste. Sauté for another minute.

Add the pasta to the pot and pour in the water (or broth). Bring to a boil, add a pinch of salt, cover with a lid, and simmer on low heat for about 7 minutes.

Then, pour the contents of the blender - crushed tomatoes - into the pot. Bring everything to a boil again and simmer for another three minutes. Taste and season with salt and pepper according to your preference. If desired, you can add a teaspoon of sugar for a bolder flavor. The macaroni cooks for about 10 minutes, which is the same amount of time our soup - with vegetables and pasta - cooks until the pasta is done.

Add the chopped basil, mix everything together, taste again for salt, and turn off the heat. Let the tomato soup with vegetables and pasta sit for about 5 minutes to allow the flavors to meld.

There you have it, our tomato soup with vegetables and pasta is ready. In my opinion, no sour cream is needed for this, but it's up to you. Enjoy your meal!