I had a request to post some of the recipes that I learned in my culinary classes this past month. This is by far my favorite and I'm drooling as I write it and planning to go get the incredients later today. Enjoy, I know I did.

Creamy Roasted Tomato & Basil Soup
1 pound ripe plum tomatoes, cut in half
¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons good olive oil
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1.5 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
1 cup chopped yellow onions
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1 14-ounce canned plum tomatoes, with their juice
1 cup fresh basil leaves, packed
1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
1 quart chicken stock
½ cup of heavy cream or half/half (optional)
1 bottle of your favorite wine
1 loaf of your favorite bread
1 favorite friend (optional)
1. Pre-heat oven to 400 F. Toss together the fresh tomatoes, ¼ olive oil, salt, and pepper. Spread tomatoes in 1 layer on a baking sheet and roast for up to 45 minutes. A convection oven will speed up this process, if you want to speed up this process.
2. In an 8-quart stockpot over medium heat, sauté the onions and garlic with 2 tablespoons olive oil, butter, and red pepper flakes for 10 minutes or until the onions start to brown.
3. Add the canned tomatoes, basil, thyme, and chicken stock. Next add the oven-roasted tomatoes, including the liquid on the baking sheet. Your option to peel off the skins at this time.
4. Bring to boil and then simmer uncovered for 40 minutes. Open your favorite bottle of wine, and begin sipping it while enjoying the incredible aroma of this soup. Your house will smell like an Italian kitchen.
5. Pass through a food mill, not you, the soup, silly, fitted with the coarsest blade. I prefer to use a hand-held puree blender immersing it right into the stockpot.
6. For those that aren’t watching their hips grow, add the ½ cup of heaving whipping cream while blending.
7. Taste for seasonings, and add appropriately. (not sure what that means or how to measure, but have another glass of wine, and figure it out) Serve hot or cold.
8. This only yields 4 servings, so you might want to double it and then simply refrigerate or freeze any extras. However, most likely, if your friends taste this, you won’t have any leftovers.