500 g (1lb) tomatoes *
1 - 2 onions, quartered
3 cloves of garlic, peeled
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 chicken/vegetable stock cube
1 pint of water
couple of handfuls of small pasta shapes *
pepper
dash of tabasco sauce (optional, if you like it with a bit more bite!)
1. Place the whole tomatoes, onion and garlic into a saucepan. Add a good glug of olive oil. Stab the tomatoes with a sharp knife (just once per tomato is enough). Place over a low heat, cover and leave for an hour, or more if you like.
2. The juice should have come out of the tomatoes and all the ingredients will be simmering and smelling lovely. Using a stick blender, blitz the mixture until it is smooth as you like.
3. Crumble in the stock cube and add the water. I add around a pint, add more if you like your soup thinner, add less if you like it thicker - it's not an exact science! Add the pasta shapes and simmer for 15 mins or until the pasta shapes are cooked. Add pepper/tobasco sauce to taste.
4. Serve with crusty bread and enjoy :-)
*NOTES: Tomatoes: Use any tomatoes you like. I used to use plum tomatoes, until I discovered that basic salad tomatoes taste just as good and are much cheaper! If using basic salad tomatoes, I use a big family pack, usually containing about 12 tomatoes or so.
Small pasta shapes: I tend to use conchigliette, as that is what the supermarket stocks. Find it in the pasta aisle. You can use whatever small pasta shapes you like. Some supermarkets don't stock it, so I go to the baby food aisle and buy a pack of baby pasta instead. Or you can always use regular pasta - it doesn't really matter.
