The Best Tomao Soup,like, Ever!!

According to the lads here anyway.  The Borrowed Boy disagrees, he really, really doesn't like soup!  

This is a doddle to make and only has a few ingredients so there are no excuses for not making it.  If you have no pesto or sun-blush tomatoes, don't worry.  It tastes fine without them.  We have never used the sour cream and always give a quick squeeze of chef tomato ketchup.

You'll need:

1 tbsp of butter or olive oil (I always use butter)

2 garlic cloves, minced (my mincer thing broke so I simply chop finely)

5 soft sun dried tomatoes, roughly chopped

3 x 400g cans of plum tomatoes (again, I use whatever is in the press)

500ml chicken or vegetable stock

1 tsp sugar, any type

142ml pot of sour cream

125g pot of pesto (I usually make it but you can buy it easily enough, buy the type you find refrigerated though, the stuff in the jars tastes nothing like pesto ... no matter who makes it)

Then you:

Melt the butter in a large pan and gently fry the garlic for a couple of minutes before adding the sun dried tomatoes and frying them gently for a moment or two.  Then tip in the tinned tomatoes, sugar, stock, tinned tomatoes, seasoning and that squeeze of ketchup, if you're using it.  Bring everything to a simmer and let it bubble away for ten minutes or so until the tomatoes have broken down.

Then either whizz it with a handheld blender or stick it in a food processor, adding half the sour cream, which I don't use.  Taste and add more sugar, salt or pepper if you need to.  Hmmm, at this point I usually whack in half the tub of pesto and blitz again.  Serve in warm bowls, with another dollop of pesto on top, and lots of buttered bread rolls.

Yum.