Summer Tomato Soup With Basil

How to make Summer Tomato Soup With Basil recipe - preparation 15 minutes cooking time 40 minutes Serves 6

Ingredients:
1 large onion, thinly sliced
25g/1oz/2 tbsp butter
3 tbsp plain (all-purpose) flour
1 litre/1¾ pints/4 cups vegetable stock
1kg/2¼lb ripe tomatoes
2 tbsp tomato paste
a few fresh basil leaves, torn, plus extra to garnish
6 tbsp crème fraîche (optional)
salt and ground black pepper

Method:
1 Fry the onion in the butter until golden brown. Add the flour and cook gently for 1 minute, stirring. Remove the pan from the heat and gradually stir in the stock. Bring to the boil slowly
and continue to cook, stirring, until thickened.

2 Halve the tomatoes, scoop out the seeds into a sieve placed over a bowl. Press the seeds to remove all the tomato pulp and juice; discard the seeds and put the juice aside.

3 Stir in the tomato purée, herbs, tomatoes and juice. Season to taste. Cover and simmer gently for 30 minutes.

4 Cool slightly, then blitz the soup in a blender. Strain through a sieve into a clean pan and reheat gently.

5 Ladle the soup into six soup bowls and swirl in the crème fraîche (optional). Garnish with basil and serve.