Roasted Vegetable Soup

2 big carrots

3 stalks of celery

2 elephant garlic cloves – or

~ a whole bulb of regular garlic

1 medium onion

½ head of green cabbage

3 mini-peppers

2 cans stewed or diced tomatoes

½c extra-virgin olive oil

fresh ground pepper

1t± ground rosemary or Italian seasonings

a little powdered soup base or sea salt if needed

Slice or chop all the vegetables, the way you'd like them for the soup, into a large mixing bowl. Drain the tomatoes into a 5 quart soup pot. Chop the tomatoes and strain the liquid into the soup pot. Combine tomato chunks with rest of the vegetables in the bowl. Drizzle with olive oil and grind some fresh pepper over all. Mix again then spread them out on a large jellyroll pan – a cookie sheet with 1” edges all around. Roast at 400° for 60 minutes. Put roasted vegetables into the soup pot. Add 4c water then simmer another 20-30 minutes. This recipe is very flexible and a good one for using up old vegetables. Roasting them takes a little more effort, but it's well worth it. The flavors are more intense and the whole house smells like a rustic Italian Cucina! Mmmmm. Makes 2½ quarts. . .Lin