You can follow the shortcut route with this recipe—with bottled peppers and canned tomatoes, even frozen artichoke hearts or bottoms—but if you have the time, use fresh artichokes and roast your own peppers.  You’ll be glad you did.  Turn on the radio, roll up your sleeves and have some fun in the kitchen.

You’ll need two-thirds of a 28-ounce can of tomatoes.  Freeze the remainder in a covered plastic container for later use in soup, pasta sauce—you name it.

(Serves 6-8)

Ingredients:

• Olive oil
• 3 red bell peppers (or 2 cups bottled roasted peppers, drained)
• 4 artichokes (or 1-1/2 cups frozen or bottled artichoke hearts or bottoms, thawed or drained, depending on the preservation method)
• One lemon
• One large onion, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 cup chopped celery (with tops) or chopped fennel
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 cups puréed canned tomatoes (with juice) or chopped fresh
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 5 cups vegetable broth or water
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 pinch cayenne pepper (or to taste)

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Remove the pepper cores and seeds, and cut peppers into quarters. Rub each piece with olive oil to coat lightly, and place, skin side down, on a baking sheet.  Roast until tender, about 35 minutes.  Remove from oven and place peppers into a bowl.  Cover bowl with a plate.  This will allow the peppers to steam, making it easier to remove the skins.  If you aren’t using fresh peppers, skip this entire step.
2. While peppers are steaming, trim artichokes down to their hearts (see instructions).  Place in a bowl of ice water with freshly squeezed lemon juice, to prevent discoloration.
3. Warm 2 tablespoons oil in a large soup pot over medium heat.  Add onions, garlic, celery and thyme and stir.  Cook until onions are soft, about 5 minutes.  Add bay leaves, tomatoes, tomato paste, broth and one teaspoon salt, one-half teaspoon pepper and a pinch of cayenne (or to taste) to the pot.  Bring to a boil, then lower heat, cover and simmer for 15 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, uncover the peppers and peel the skins off.  Don’t worry if you aren’t able to remove every bit of skin.  It won’t matter.  Discard the skins and roughly chop the peppers.  If you are using bottled peppers, chop them at this point.
5. Remove the artichokes from the lemon water and roughly chop. If using bottled or frozen artichokes, roughly chop. Add the peppers and artichokes to the soup.  Stir and simmer until artichokes are tender, about 20 minutes.  Remove the bay leaves from the pot, and add one tablespoon fresh lemon juice.
6. Purée the soup with a handheld immersion blender.  Leave some chunks of pepper and artichoke if you like.  Alternatively, purée soup in a food processor.  Taste and add more salt and pepper or lemon juice, if needed.