Roasted pepper, tomato and smoked sweet paprika soup with parmesan pao de queijo bread

Rain, rain and more rain! Only food with a vibrant colour and a taste of a warm, far-away land can help me now! My passion for Spanish smoked paprika and roasted peppers could only result in this captivating soup!

Ingredients:

• 4 red peppers
• 1 tin of chopped tomatoes
• 1 red onion
• 2 cloves of garlic
• half a litre of vegetable stock
• olive oil
• smoked sweet paprika (half a teaspoon)
• salt and pepper

Instructions:

• Preheat the oven to 180°C.
• Put the peppers on a baking tray and roast in the oven for 30 minutes, turning them once during cooking. The peppers should now look quite black in colour and quite deflated.
• Remove the peppers from the oven and leave to cool. Once cool remove the skin and the seeds and chop them.
• Retain the juice to add flavour to the soup later.
• Heat the olive oil and cook the chopped onion and garlic.
• Add the tin of tomatoes and simmer gently for 5 minutes.
• Add the chopped peppers and the pepper juice.
• Simmer gently for a few minutes then add the stock.
• Season with salt and pepper, cover and simmer for 30 minutes. Add hot water in case too much liquid has evaporated.
• Put the soup into a blender until smooth.
• Add the paprika and additional seasoning to taste.
• Serve hot with a garnish of freshly-ground black pepper and parsley.

The pao de queijo was a first! I wanted to accompany this soup with something different from the classic piece of bread. I thought about making some lovely parmesan shortbread but then Fabiana, a member of my team, suggested the classic parmesan bread from Brazil - pao de queijo.

She doesn’t normally spend a lot of time in the kitchen although she is top-notch barista and panini-maker, but the chance to prepare a Brazilian specialty for us turned her into a speedy, passionate and a bit of a crazy cook!

It wasn’t easy for me as I was coming to terms with the flavour and texture of brand new ingredients, while Fabiana was trying to remember how she made them previously.

So there was a lot of Italian and Brazilian commotion going on in the kitchen while Ewa, my Polish staff member, was looking at us in total disbelief. So, we were all excited waiting for the first batch of pao de queijo to come out from the oven.

Hats off to Fabi, they tasted great! Ewa agreed too.