Earlier this week Llywelyn Graeme asked Questionland if anyone had the recipe for Cafe Minnie's Zorba the Greek omelette, which reminded me of Cafe Minnie's really delicious tomato basil soup. While the omelette recipe has yet to show up (know it? Go here!), it turns out Llywelyn had the recipe for the soup:

Tomato Basil Soup

4 14oz cans of diced tomatoes
1 onion, diced
1 green bell pepper, diced
2 or 3 stalks of celery, chopped
6 cloves of garlic (I like garlic)
1 cup white wine (Your choice. I use whatever is on sale.)
1 cup Half and Half
1 bunch of fresh basil, remove the stems

Olive oil
Black pepper
Grated parmesan cheese

In a large pot, sauté the onion and garlic in about a tablespoon of olive oil for a couple minutes. Add the celery and green pepper, and cook until the onion is translucent. Add the tomatoes, half of the basil, freshly ground black pepper to taste, and the wine and simmer for 20 minutes or so. Put about half of the vegetable from the soup into a blender, along with the cup of half and half, and blend until smooth. Add the blended vegetables back into the pot, along with the remainder of the basil and return to a simmer.

Serve in a bowl with a generous pinch of the grated parmesan cheese.

Speaking of tomatoes and basil, Pettirosso's seasonal caprese sandwich is back. I just had one. It's really, really good. And look, it's pretty!

And speaking of Cafe Minnie's, in the early ’00s I was having breakfast with a friend at the Cafe Minnie's on Broadway and Chris Cornell was sitting at a table by the window, alone, enjoying some pancakes.