Ingredients

• Butter and olive oil (skip butter and parmesan crisps if goin vegan)

• 1 medium white onion

• 1 small red onion

• 1 small carrot

• 2 cloves of garlic

• 1 ltr veg stock

• 1 tin of plum tomatoes

• 1 tsp black pepper

• 1/2 tsp marjoram, thyme and oregano

• 1/4 tsp tarragon

• 1 cup of double cream (optional but come on)

• 1 tbsp of finely grated parmesan (per portion)

• Basil to serve.

Method (easy as fuck)

1. Place your grated parmesan on greaseproof paper on a baking sheet in a 180°C oven for about 10 minutes or until lightly browned (the ones in the picture are probably a bit overdone, aim slightly lighter than that)

2. Finely dice the white and red onion and place in a large sauce pan with 1 tbsp each butter and olive oil at medium heat, liberally salt to draw out moisture.

3. Grate your carrot, I do it on a microplane but just grate it as fine as possible.

4. When the onions are soft and taking on a bit of colour, lower the head and add your garlic, pepper and herbs, stir until super fragrant.

5. Add the carrot and stir until the mixture is no longer wet as fuck.

6. Add your tomatoes and break up with whatever your stirring implement of choice is (skip if using diced tomatoes), then add your stock + a tin of water (from the tomatoes, unless you managed to buy a tin of water)

7. Cook on medium high heat until tomatoes are heated through and tender and liquid has reduced by around 1/4.

8. Remove from the heat and blend with an immersion blender until smooth (if you don’t have one, wait until the mixture is cool enough and pour into the jar of a blender and blend smooth)

9. If necessary return to the heat and cook down further until it’s the desired texture, at this point remove from the heat and allow it to cool slightly before adding the cream to avoid it splitting.

10. Season to taste, if you were sufficiently liberal with the salt earlier it’ll be grand there, but tomato soup and black pepper are best pals.

11. Serve in heated bowls with cream, olive oil, basil (chiffonade - roll it up like a rollie and slice into thin ribbons) and your parmesan crisps to serve (in that order), have bread too if you want - I’m not fussy. It’s pretty rich anyway.