Homemade Tomato Soup - from my friend, Trina

Homemade Tomato Soup

Recipe courtesy Michael Chiarello, The Food Network

Ingredients

• 1 (14-ounce) can chopped tomatoes
• ¾* cup extra virgin olive oil (*I use closer to ¼ cup even for a bigger batch)
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 stalk celery, diced
• 1 small carrot, diced
• 1 yellow onion, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 cup chicken broth
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil leaves
• 1/2 cup heavy cream, optional

Directions

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.

Strain the chopped canned tomatoes, reserving the juices, and spread onto a baking sheet, season with salt and pepper, to taste, drizzle with about 1/4 cup of the olive oil and roast until caramelized, about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a saucepan, heat remaining olive oil over medium-low heat. Add the celery, carrot, onion and garlic, cook until softened, about 10 minutes. Add the roasted chopped canned tomatoes, reserved tomato juices, chicken broth, bay leaf and butter. Simmer until vegetables are very tender, about 15 to 20 minutes. Add basil and cream, if using. Puree with a hand held immersion blender until smooth.*

NOTES:

*I don’t have an immersion blender so I use a normal blender or my food processor to blend everything. I leave out the heavy cream and it still tastes very rich. The recipe does not make a lot of soup so I usually triple or quadruple the amounts so that we have plenty left over for another meal.