Cream of Tomato Soup with Pesto

"I sautéed an onion in the saucepot first and then added the stock and tomatoes. Rather than waiting for the chicken stock to reduce by 1/3 I drained the tomatoes to save time and I did also use closer..." See more to ¼ cup pesto. The hand blender worked perfectly to puree it right in the pot and the soup was delicious! Perfect for a rainy day! Next time I might have it with a grilled cheese sandwich and garnish with some fresh basil. "

"While this is very good, it is also a fairly common tomato soup recipe with the standard chicken broth, tomatoes and cream. It's certainly easy to throw together in a pinch with pantry staples, but i..." See moref you want to really make this special use homemade chicken broth (I had some in the freezer), homemade marinara (also in my freezer, put up from my garden) and heavy cream rather than the half and half. I did use the half and half this time for comparison's sake and found that the soup is just not as good as it is with rich, heavy cream - and for some reason it even looks better made with cream too! Loved the pesto swirl at the end -again, I used homemade that I'd frozen. Reducing the chicken broth really isn't necessary, and I don't add the cream until after the tomatoes and broth have simmered a bit. Great soup for little time and effort."

"Excellent! Used Caldo de Pollo dried to make the chicken stock, and had accidently bought cans of pureed tomato so didn't even need to use the blender at all. Wonderful flavor and *so* fast. Yum-O!..." See more"