Roasted Tomato Soup with Basil

Tomato Soup made with love by Mom, is my son's ultimate comfort food. Whenever he goes away from home for any period of time, he always asks me to make it. He has just spent 10 days on a gruelling hike and camping trip with his school and sure enough as soon as he got home he requested homemade tomato soup. This is how I make it.

INGREDIENTS

1 kg small Roma tomatoes. Any small tasty tomatoes will do.
olive oil
balsamic vinegar
about 12 large basil leaves
1 cup chicken stock. If you are vegetarian you can use vegetable stock
1 cup water
2 cloves crushed garlic or 2 teaspoons dried, granulated garlic.
3 tablespoons of cream. (45ml)
1½ teaspoons sugar
salt and pepper

METHOD

Dump the tomatoes into a roasting pan.
Drizzle with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.
Roast for an hour at 180°C

Using a large spoon, place all the roasted tomatoes into a pot and pour in all the liquid from the roasting pan.
Now, in go the basil leaves, chicken stock, water and garlic.

Bring to the boil, turn the heat to low and simmer with the lid on for about ½ hour.
Blend with an emersion blender and pass through a sieve into another pot to get rid of all the bits.
Add the cream and sugar, stir and let simmer and reduce down for as long as it takes to reach the consistency that you like, as some people prefer their soup thick and others thinner.
season with salt and pepper to taste.