Roasted Tomato Soup

Vine ripe tomatoes were on sale this week for .99 cents a pound. So of course I grabbed a ton and then realized there's no way I'll eat that many before they go bad! This recipe called for a total of 2 1/2 lbs of tomatoes of all kinds, but I used all vine ripe since thats what I have.



Ingredients:

2 1/2 lbs fresh tomatoes (mix of whichever kinds you like)
6 cloves peeled garlic
2 small yellow onions sliced
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
1 quart chicken stock
2 bay leaves
2 tbs butter
1/2 cup chopped fresh basil leaves
3/4 cup heavy cream

Preheat oven to 450

Wash, core and cut tomatoes into halves. (*I cored mine with my potato peeler/apple corer). Spread tomatoes, garlic cloves, and onions onto baking tray. Drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper. Roast for 30 minutes. Remove roasted tomato mix and transfer to a large stock pot. And 3/4 of the chicken stock, bay leaves and butter. Bring to a boil and then simmer for 15-20 minutes.

Chop basil leaves and add to pot. Use immersion blender to puree until smooth (*If you don't have one of those nifty tools, you can pour the soup in batches into your blender). Return heat to low and add cream and remaining stock if soup needs to be thinned. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

***Just as I was making this my husband needed me to bring him something to his work that he forgot, so we ate lunch with him. I left to soup to get room temp, poured it into a freezer bag and am going to freeze it for future use. It is fall afterall...I'm sure one day it will cool down and start to feel like soup weather!