Pump up the flavor of classic tomato soup

>>> this morning on "today's kitchen," what's on the menu, a classic comfort food with a twist for a cold fall day. ina garten is out with her new cook book , barefoot contessa , foolproof." .

>> nice to be here.

>> we're making tomato soup .

>> everybody feels like comfort food with the storm and holidays coming and i thought what better than tomato soup .

>> yours has a little bit of a twist. how do we get started here?

>> really easy, sauteed some onions. saute them slowly for 15 minutes and add garlic right at the end.

>> how many of garl snick.

>> a teaspoon of garlic and then it doesn't burn if you add it right at the end for about a minute and i'll add chicken stock . this is really fast. four cups of chicken stock and tomatoes.

>> crushed tomatoes. okay to use tomatoes from a can. not against the law.

>> and i love san marzano tomatoes. and saffron, gives it a little bit of heat, salt and pepper , and a tablespoon of salt because it's a big pot of soup and a teaspoon of pepper, put that right in, and it's going to cook for about 15 minutes .

>> now you have orzo in this. how do we get that ready to go?

>> put in half a cup of orzo, half cooked it, and i'm going to put it in and let it finish cooking in the soup, and what happens is the starve in the orzo thickens the soup naturally.

>> you have cooked the orzo.

>> about seven minutes.

>> and it will finish in there.

>> and, of course, a little cream never hurt.

>> go to town.

>> a little cream in, and add it right in and that cooks for 15 minutes . it's fantastic, and i have some finished right here. you want to try it?

>> of course i do. it's not comfort food yet until you have a grilled cheese sandwich with it so we'll make grilled cheese youthon.

>> right up here.

>> i think you may have to wait for the whole thing.

>> here's some soup.

>> great.

>> and i make grilled cheese youthons by taking bread and gruyere by putting them right here in in a panini machine.

>> butter the bread.

>> melt the butter, put it on the bread and make a gruyere sandwich. take it out of the panini press, so much easier than a pan and cut it up in a pan.

>> if you don't have a panini press you can fry it the old way.

>> i love that. that's a cute take on youthons.

>> if i take a bite, will you tell us about our thing back there.

>> i can.

>> so good.

>> that's great.

>> what's our next one.

>> the next comfort food , of course, is meatloaf, right, so this is 1770 house meatloaf from a restaurant, a wonderful restaurant near me, so delicious, and they make a sauce that's garlic and chicken stock , an they just cook it until it's really sweet and just pour it right over the whole thing.

>> i'm not used to -- i'm used to meatloaf with ketchup on top.

>> this is fancier meatloaf and made actually with panko crumbs which you puree, and it really holds it together.

>> the gang's all here.

>> you have to come.

>> that's so good.

>> so happy to see you.

>> excuse us.

>> oh, my gosh. that looks good.

>> one more.

>> we have toffee date cake, i don't think anybody wants that.

>> we do.

>> the toffee date cake is a really moist holiday cake that you make with a caramel glaze that has a little bit of bourbon in it. i don't think anybody is going to want to taste that, right?

>> i didn't think i could fall in love with meatloaf, it's happened.

>> this is so good.

>> delicious.

>> i have some on my finger.

>> thank you so much. a reminder to everybody, the cook book is called "foolproof."