I’m not Jamie Oliver’s biggest fan, but when I had quite a lot of leftover bread to use and a hankering for tomato soup, I thought I’d give this recipe a try.

It’s actually delicious – I used crusty bread so there was some pieces that were still slightly chewy which I loved and it had a really rich tomato flavour.

Serves 4 – Jamie Oliver

Ingredients

• 4 cloves of garlic
• olive oil
• 1 bunch of fresh basil , (30g)
• 2 x 400 g tins of plum tomatoes
• 270 g stale ciabatta
• 40 g Parmesan cheese
• extra virgin olive oil

1. Peel and finely slice the garlic, and place in a large pan on a medium heat with 1 tablespoon of olive oil, stirring regularly.
2. Pick the baby basil leaves into a bowl of cold water for later, then pick the rest of the leaves into the pan.
3. Before the garlic starts to colour, add the tomatoes and 2 tins’ worth of water, season with sea salt and black pepper, and bring to the boil, gently mashing the tomatoes.
4. Tear in the stale bread, stir, then leave to simmer on a low heat for 5 minutes, or until thick and delicious.
5. Finely grate and stir in the Parmesan, then taste and season.
6. Dish up, sprinkle over the reserved baby basil leaves and drizzle each bowlful with 1 tablespoon of good extra virgin olive oil