Creamy Tomato Soup

>This recipe comes to me via RebEatWorld, who says of it:

"I do not like tomato soup. I love grilled cheese, but even grilled cheese cannot redeem tomato soup. And yet tomato soup was the second soup I decided to hazard in my vegetable soup-making quest. For one thing, the picture of "Italian Tomato Soup" in Ms. Forster's Soups book didn't look like Campbell's. It looked redder, and chunkier. And spicy! So I made the soup-- and it didn't look red, or chunky, or spicy. It looked like Campbell's. But it actually tasted heavenly! Especially when I added bottled artichokes the next day."

I made this recipe at great risk: Robber states all the time that he DOES NOT LIKE soup. But I thought, "It's going to rain! And tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches on a rainy day sound fantastic! I care not what the Robber says, it is time learned!"

Then Robber came, and I mentioned the soup in a long line of things to eat, and lo and behold he chose it all by himself.

It turns out he likes creamy tomato soup. And creamy mushroom soup.

I said, "Robber, you will not be getting creamy mushroom soup from me."

But we ate of this soup with fresh drop biscuits and were pleased.

Ingredients:

1 T olive oil
2 T butter
1 onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, coarsely chopped
6 tomatoes (2 lbs?), coarsely chopped
3 C chicken stock
1/2 C nonalcoholic white cooking wine (I used 1/4 C. white vinegar, 1/4 C. water)
2 T tomato paste
1 T shredded fresh basil
1 C heavy cream
salt
pepper

Directions:

Heat oil and butter in pan until foaming. Add onion and saute 5 minutes, until softened but not brown. Stir in tomatoes and garlic, then add the stock, cooking wine, and tomato paste. Season with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, lower heat, half-cover pan, and simmer gently for 20 minutes, stirring now and then so that the tomatoes won't stick. Use an immersion blender to blend the soup somewhat. Add the heavy cream and heat through, stirring. Do not allow the soup to near a boil ever again. Adjust the seasoning and the consistency with stock, if desired.