I was busy writing the recipe for my Hot & Sour Won-ton soup when it dawned on me that I have used the pressed tofu, in a couple of different ways, in at least 6 soups. Each time in the recipe I go through the process when I can just reference a procedure instead.
I only do this to extra firm tofu and there are a couple of reasons behind it. The first of which is that tofu has a lot of water. By pressing it with some weight for awhile, you remove the excess water within the tofu and that won't release into your soup. The second part of pressing it is to firm up the texture so it doesn't break apart as much in soups. Though it does take a bit of heat and motion to actually break down extra firm tofu, the pressing decreases the volume and compacts the block a bit more.
The process of doing this is quite simple. Place the tofu on a flat surface that has a bit of height, like a lipped plate, or a large enough tuperware container, then place an identical item on top that you can add weight to. Let it sit for a couple of hours and remove. After this process you can cut your tofu to your desired shape.
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