4cups tomatoespeeled, cored and chopped, or 4 cup canned whole tomatoes, crushed
4cups tomato juice and part vegetable stock or chicken stock
12washed fresh basil leaves
1cup heavy cream
4ouncesunsalted butter
salt to taste
1/4teaspoon cracked black pepper
Instructions
Combine tomatoes, juice/and or stock in saucepan. Simmer 30 minutes. Puree, along with the basil leaves, in small batches, in blender, food processor (or better yet, one of those handy hand-held food blenders, right in the cooking pan).
Return to saucepan and add cream and butter, while stirring over low heat. Garnish with basil leaves and serve with your favorite bread.
Recipe Tips
Stock variations:If desired you can substitute the 4 cups of tomato juice with: vegetable stock, and/or chicken stock. Here are my recommended variations.
2 cups tomato juice and 2 cups of chicken stock - I personally think the flavor is more well rounded this way.
2 cups tomato juice and 2 cups of vegetable stock - perfect for when you want the soup vegetarian and not vegan.
I personally feel that swapping out all of the tomato juice takes away from the tomato flavor of the soup, but that is just me. I typically make the soup with all tomato juice, or half tomato juice, and half chicken stock.