This is a quick soup — far superior than the tomato soup from a can. On a cool and dreary night there is not much better than a creamy soup and a warm toasted sandwich. This was that night AND this was the perfect soup.

So easy to assemble — any canned tomatoes will do. I used a quart (32 oz) jar of home canned because I wanted leftovers. By the time my husband and I had an extra half serving, there is about 8 oz left in the pot. I would suggest 10-12 oz per person as a main course or 8 oz per person for a starter. Also, store bought canned tomatoes are wonderful. You can even experiment with fire roasted or flavored tomatoes. I just happened to have home canned that I need to use.

Tools you need are a dutch oven and an immersion blender. If you don’t have an immersion blender, a regular blender or food processor will also work. This equipment purées the tomatoes into a nice creamy base. I stir with a wooden spoon.

Ingredients are canned tomatoes, basil pesto, a tablespoon of butter, and cream or half and half. I found a very nice basil pesto at Sprouts this week to use in my skillet pesto chicken and saved some for this delicious tomato soup. It adds so much flavor and depth to the soup.

Here’s how:

Open the jar/tin of tomatoes and put them in the dutch oven on stove top over medium heat. Tomatoes will scorch from natural sugars, so not to hot nor too long. Just simmer.

Add about 3 Tablespoons of Pesto to the tomatoes (if using about 32 oz of tomatoes) and stir in.

Simmer for about 5 minutes to allow the pesto flavors to bloom into the tomatoes.

Remove from heat and carefully using an immersion blender, purée the tomatoes until they are as smooth as desired. Alternative, carefully put them in a food processor to purée and then return them to the pot. These tomatoes are hot.

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Return the dutch oven to the heat. Taste for seasoning. Add salt and pepper as desired.

Stir in a tablespoon of butter.

Turn off the heat and stir in the cream or half and half slowly until the soup obtains the level of creaminess desired. Too much cream and you loose flavor. We like to taste the tomato and basil. You may like it milder. The more cream is added, the milder the soup. Also, don’t allow it to simmer after the cream has been added or the cream will break.

As I was making my soup, I placed two grilled cheese sandwiches with a bit of olive oil and a pat of margarine in a separate skillet. Just good bread, Monterey Jack cheese slices and Dukes mayo. They were the perfect crispy warm sandwich to accompany this beautiful soup and this was the perfect dinner for a cool dreary winter night.

Hope you try this delicious soup! If you like tomato soup, you will LOVE LOVE LOVE this.

Buon Appetito!

Your Iron Maiden,

Kim Orsini

Black Skillet Cooking