A tomato soup to make during the cold winter months, when you don't have fresh sunripened tomatoes from the garden, bringing a little taste of summer to the table.
Place the tomatoes, red onion and garlic into a baking dish, drizzle with olive oil and season with a little salt and pepper.
Bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes, until everything was nice and soft, and there was a little charring starting to happen.
Remove from oven and allow to cool a little
Heat a large stockpot over medium-low heat and add the olive oil.
Toss in the diced onion, carrot and celery and sauté until the onion is translucent.
Meanwhile remove the skins from the tomatoes (they should just slip off), and slip the garlic out of its skin.
Add the tomatoes, red onion and garlic to the pot and stir to combine.
Add the chicken stock and tomato paste and bring to the boil. Simmer for 20 minutes.
Remove from the heat and allow to cool a little.
Add the basil into the bowl of a blender or food processor, and then add the soup and blend to purée (you may need to do this in batches).
Return the soup to a clean pot, carefully reheat and adjust seasoning (you may need to add a little more sugar, depending on the acidity of the tomatoes).
Serve hot finished with slices of chévre, sprigs of fresh basil, a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and a grind of freshly ground black pepper.
Notes
Feel free to use canned tomatoes or tomato passata, I'm sure that they would work perfectly well
I am looking forward to trying this with garden fresh, heirloom tomatoes in the summer. I am sure that I would not need as much, if any, tomato paste then.