This healthy, nourishing soup is quick to make and always popular with guests. Make sure you use ripe, flavourful tomatoes.
1kg (2lb 2oz) very ripe tomatoes
1 lettuce, about 400g (14oz)
60g (¼ cup) butter
1.25 litres (5 cups) chicken stock or water
150g (5½oz) potatoes, peeled and diced
salt and freshly ground pepper
6–8 poached eggs
Skin, quarter and deseed the tomatoes. Dice some of the tomato flesh or cut into diamonds; you need a spoonful for each serving; set aside. Trim the lettuce and wash it in cold water. Finely shred 2 or 3 leaves and keep with the reserved tomato. Shred the rest of the lettuce.
To make the soup, melt the butter in a pan, add the shredded lettuce and sweat over a medium heat for 3 or 4 minutes. Add the tomatoes, stock or water, and the potatoes. Bring to the boil, then cook over medium heat for 8 – 10 minutes, until the potatoes are tender.
Blitz the soup in several batches in a blender for 2 minutes, then pass it through a chinois into a clean saucepan. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Warm the poached eggs in boiling water for a few seconds, then drain. Put one in the middle of each warm soup bowl and pour the soup around the eggs. Scatter the reserved lettuce and tomato over the surface and serve at once.