Cream of Tomato Soup

Our family is all about the soup. Mostly Dad is all about soup. I love Conference weekend for many reasons - the two big ones are Mom and Dad coming and staying with us and good food. This time I did Cream of Tomato Soup and Allyn's Creamy Chicken Soup (Sisters' Cookbook Volume 2) and artisan bread with salami and fun cheeses. We had sugar/salt/cinnamon roasted almonds, too. And jellybeans. (Seriously?! I just looked through our blog to link a recipe for the almonds and Allyn's soup and neither one of them are there. I could have sworn I posted those. Bah. One more thing to do...)

4 T. unsalted butter

2 28-oz. cans diced tomatoes, drained with 3 cups of the juice reserved

1 onion, chopped fine

2 T. light brown sugar

1 T. tomato paste

2 T. all-purpose flour

1 3/4 c. low-sodium chicken broth

1/2 c. heavy cream

Salt

Pepper

1. Melt the butter in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add drained tomatoes, onion, brown sugar and tomato paste. cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion is softened and the tomatoes begin to caramelize (about 15 minutes).

2. Stir in the flour and cook for 1 minute. Slowly stir in the broth and the reserved tomato juice, scraping up any browned bits. Bring to a simmer, cover, and cook for 10 minutes. Puree the soup in batches in a blender or food processor until smooth.

3. Return the pureed soup to the pot and stir in the cream. Bring to a brief simmer, then remove from the heat. Season with salt and pepper before serving.