Nectar of the Gods

I got this recipe from my sister, Pam. She got it from a Lion House cookbook. Her family named it Nectar of the Gods, and believe me, it's an appropriate name. I'm sure I've changed it a bit from the original, but I don't remember what those changes are.

Nectar of the Gods

12 to 15 roma tomatoes ( or equivalent of garden tomatoes)
4 cans tomato soup
2 cups chicken stock
1 cup beef stock or consommé
1 big bunch fresh basil leaves
3/4 - 1 cup sugar
2-3 cups cream or half and half or whole milk
salt and pepper to taste



Cut tomatoes in half and put on a baking sheet lined with parchment.. Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and salt and pepper. Roast at 400 until the tomatoes are soft and browned. Meanwhile, combine soups in a large pot and start to heat. When tomatoes are soft, bubbly and browned,  let them rest until you can touch them.  Pull the skins off put them in a blender with the coarsely chopped basil. Put a towel over the lid while you blend.  When blended, add to the soup and stir. 

 OR (and this is what I do) add the tomatoes and basil to the pot and use an immersible  blender to blend all together well.  Either method, heat through and let simmer for awhile.  When all is well blended and hot, add sugar, cream and salt and pepper. Do not boil. Heat and serve.

1 recipe makes 3+ quarts without the cream. In the summer, when we have tomatoes from our garden,  I double the batch, but don't put in the cream.  That fills my big pot.  I freeze it in quart jars.  We then add the cream (or milk or half and half) when we heat it to serve.  Kristen and Jared taught us to do that. Yummy soup all year-long!

*Before putting the filled jars in the freezer, put them in the fridge overnight.  They should be cold when you put them into the freezer to avoid breakage.