Thorn's Summer Garden Eggplant Carponata Recipe

Directions:

1. Wash and core all tomatoes, cut small x on bottom for easier skinning.
2. Blanch tomatoes for at least 1 minute in boiling water, immediately plung into ice bath in sink.
3. Remove tomato skins and cut in eighths into a large bowl. Set aside.
4. Trim basil and oregano leaves off stems, chop into bowl. Set aside.
5. Cut up in bite sized pieces the zucchini, celery, bell peppers, eggplant, green onions, okra and onions (keep onions separate from other veggies). Set aside.
6. Slice green and black olives into bowl. Set aside.
7. Using a large stainless steel pot, combine olive oil, 2/3 of the tomatoes, half of the chopped onions, 1/3 of the basil, 1/3 of the bell peppers, and celery, all the garlic, dry onion, all dry seasonings and soy sauce.
8. Bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium.
9. Add all remaining veggies, olives, raisins, sesame seeds and capers. Simmer for about 10 minutes.
10. Take soup's temperature, when it reaches above 165 degrees for at least one minute turn off the heat. Mixture will be thick.
11. Add and stir in all remaining basil and oregano.
12. Add cold water to thin the broth if desired. (This immediately begins to cool the soup helping to preserve the veggies freshness.)
13. Add Basque Norte Marinade (about 1/2 cup).
14. Sit covered for at least 10-20 minutes before serving.
15. Ladle all of the soup into 20 oz. Ziploc containers for freezing and serving. (Leaving soup in the pot too long causes everything to overcook and get mushy, so get it out of the pot as soon as possible to cool.)