OPINION | FRONT BURNER: Tomato soup is tops for fall's arrival

Tomato soup — with or without a grilled-cheese sandwich — is one of my favorite rainy or cool weather meals. And with fall officially here, hot soup season can begin in earnest.

So naturally a recipe for tomato soup was the first recipe I tried in Asha Gomez's new cookbook "I Cook in Color" (Running Press, Oct. 6).

I was intrigued by the spice combination — cloves and crushed red pepper — and the puff pastry lid.

The soup starts with onion and garlic sauteed in a luxurious amount of butter and, like the green chile sauce I wrote about a couple of weeks ago, flour is stirred in like a roux and cooked until just golden before the remaining ingredients — canned whole tomatoes, broth, ground cloves, red chile flakes, salt and honey — are added.