Fresh Tomato and Sweet Chilli Pepper Soup with Smashed Basil and Olive Oil

This is a recipe taken from the Naked Chef. By far it is the best tomato soup I have had. We made some toasted motz cheese sandwiches to go along with this. Yummy!!!

Ingredients:

15 ripe plum tomatoes
3 medium red bell peppers (you can sub with pre done stuff in a jar. Just rinse off the oil)
~ 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 tbsp chopped fresh seeded red chili * (We couldn't find red chili by us so we used a bit of canned chipotle pepper in aboro sauce)
salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
2 tbsp red wine vinegar, or to taste
2 cups chicken or vegetable stock
2 good handfuls of basil leaves

Directions:

Score the tops of the tomatoes, blanch in boiling water for about 20 seconds, or until you can remove the skins and seed. Grill the peppers whole (to achieve a really sweet ppper taste they should be grilled until black), rest in a covered bowl, then peel and finely chop them.

Put the chopped peppers in a warmed, thick-bottomed pan with 2 tbsp of the olive oil and the chopped red chili. Add a pinch of salt and cook slowly for about 5 minutes. Add the chopped garlic and cook for a further 2 minutes. Then add the roughly chopped tomatoes and cook for about 10 minutes with another pinch of salt and the red wine vinegar so that they sort of melt and infuse themselves together. Add the stock and simmer for 15 minutes. Season to taste.

In a mortar and pestle (or a food processor), smash the basil to a pulp with a pinch of salt. Stir in the remaining olive oil and a drop more red wine vinegar. Drizzle the mixture generously over your soup.

* We found that it gave the soup a nice smokey flavor.