Tomato Soup

3 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup chopped yellow onion
2 carrots peeled and diced
2 tablespoons minced garlic
1 tablespoon tomato paste
4 pounds tomatoes on the vine- peeled
2 teaspoons sugar
¼ cup packed chopped fresh basil leaves
3 cups chicken broth or stock
1 tablespoon kosher salt
2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper

I boiled my tomatoes in hot water for about 1-2 minutes, then took them out of the boiling water to cool. I peeled all of them so that the skins don't get into the soup. Then I chopped them up.

Saute carrots, onion, salt and pepper in the olive oil for about 5-7 minutes. Add garlic and tomatoes. Cook for 3 minutes. Add sugar, tomato paste, basil and stock. Simmer on low for 40 minutes. You want the tomatoes to be very tender. Ideally you'd want to use a hand blender at this point to blend up the soup. I don't have one so I just ladled small portions into my regular blender and blitzed it up. You have to be careful with blending hot things because the heat and pressure can blow the top off of the blender (so I held a kitchen towel over the top of the whole blender while blending. You can also use a food processor. Once it's blended as thin as you like it, reheat it and eat!

I served the soup with a drizzle of cream on top, because the soup is already so rich.