Gordon Ramsay Tomato Soup

Gordon Ramsay’s roasted tomato soup is creamy, smoky and rich, made by searing 1.5kg of ripe tomatoes on the hob then roasting them in the oven until the edges char and the sugars concentrate. It’s finished with cream and a punchy sundried tomato pesto that takes it from comfort food to something you’d pay £12 for in a restaurant.

This is his Creamy Tomato Soup with Sundried Tomato Pesto from Ultimate Home Cooking and his YouTube video. The roasting step is what separates it from every other tomato soup: he says “it’s so much better to start on the stove searing, then into the oven. You roast the tomatoes and they don’t stew, and it’s a big difference in flavour.”

He uses red onion instead of white because it’s sweeter, adds a teaspoon of cayenne for warmth without the fierceness of fresh chilli, and finishes with sugar and aged balsamic to pull out the natural acidity and sweetness. In the video he says this soup brings back memories of lying about feeling ill at school just to get a bowl of his mother’s homemade tomato soup.

Gordon Ramsay’s Roasted Tomato Soup

Recipe by Sophie LaneCourse: Soup, Main

Servings

4

Prep time

15

minutes

Cooking time

35

minutes

Calories

320

kcal

Total time

50

minutes

Difficulty

Easy

Gordon Ramsay’s Creamy Tomato Soup with Sundried Tomato Pesto from Ultimate Home Cooking. Tomatoes roasted with cayenne and balsamic until charred, blended with cream and topped with a homemade pesto pounded in a mortar. Serve with Welsh rarebit for the full Ramsay experience. Serves 4.

Ingredients

• 1.5kg (3.3 lb) ripe tomatoes, cored and halved

• 2 red onions, peeled and sliced

• 2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely sliced

• ½-1 tsp cayenne pepper, to taste

• Olive oil, for drizzling

• 1 tsp caster sugar

• 1 tsp aged balsamic vinegar

• 1L (4 cups) vegetable or chicken stock

• 100ml (⅓ cup) double cream

• Sea salt and black pepper

• For the Sundried Tomato Pesto:

• 2-3 tbsp pine nuts

• 75g (3 oz) sundried tomatoes, drained and oil reserved, finely chopped

• 50g (2 oz) Parmesan, grated

• Olive oil

Directions

• Sear and roast: Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F). Place a roasting tray on the hob over a medium-high heat. Add the onions, garlic and cayenne with a generous drizzle of olive oil and cook for 3 to 4 minutes. Lay the tomatoes cut-side down, season with salt, pepper and sugar, drizzle with balsamic and sear over high heat for 3 to 4 minutes until they start to caramelise. Transfer to the oven for 20 to 25 minutes.
• Make the pesto: Toast the pine nuts in a dry pan until golden. Pound the sundried tomatoes in a mortar until broken down. Add the pine nuts and keep pounding to a rough paste. Stir in the Parmesan, then add olive oil and enough of the reserved sundried tomato oil to reach a spooning consistency.
• Build the soup: Put the roasting tray back on the hob over a medium heat. Pour in the stock, bring to the boil and simmer for 4 to 5 minutes. The tomatoes will break up instantly. Add the cream and simmer for another 2 to 3 minutes.
• Blend and serve: Blitz with a stick blender until almost smooth but still with a few chunky bits for texture. Ladle into warm bowls and drop a couple of spoonfuls of pesto on top.

FAQs

Why roast the tomatoes instead of just simmering them?

Roasting caramelises the edges and concentrates the sugars, which gives the soup a smoky depth that boiled tomatoes can’t match. Ramsay is specific about this: sear them on the hob first for colour, then transfer to the oven so they roast rather than stew.

The charred bits on the bottom of the tray are flavour gold. When you pour the stock in and scrape them up, all of that caramelisation dissolves into the broth.

Why make the pesto in a mortar instead of a blender?

Ramsay says in the video “you feel so much more in control” with a mortar than a blade spinning at a thousand miles an hour. Pounding gives you a rougher, more textured pesto where you can still see bits of pine nut and sundried tomato.

A blender makes it too smooth and you lose the contrast against the creamy soup. If you don’t have a mortar, pulse a food processor a few times and stop well before it turns into a paste.

Can I use regular basil pesto instead?

You can, and I have a basil pesto recipe that works well here. But the sundried tomato version adds a concentrated tomato hit that doubles down on the soup’s flavour in a way basil pesto doesn’t.

Ramsay designed them as a pair, so the pesto intensifies what’s already in the bowl rather than pulling it in a different direction.

What about the Welsh rarebit he serves with it?

Ramsay serves this soup with Welsh rarebit in the book and the video, and honestly it takes the whole thing to another level. It’s a roux made with butter, flour and stout instead of milk, mixed with Dijon, Worcestershire and Montgomery Cheddar, spread on toast and grilled until bubbling.

It’s the best cheese on toast you’ll ever have, and dipping it into the soup is what makes this a proper meal. If you want a quicker option, any good cheese on toast (or grilled cheese if you’re in the US) works alongside a lentil salad for a full lunch.

Can I add red peppers to this?

Ramsay has a separate Roast Red Pepper and Tomato Soup in Bread Street Kitchen which does exactly that: roasts red peppers alongside the tomatoes for a sweeter, more complex flavour.

If you want to try it, add 2 deseeded red peppers cut into chunks with the tomatoes before they go in the oven. Everything else stays the same.