Tomato Soup

Method

1. sweat12 min
   low, lid ajar, no color
   butter + olive oil + onion + carrot + celery + a pinch of the salt — keep the lid on so the vegetables give up water and cook in their own steam. The salt draws that water out; the low heat keeps the sugars dissolving rather than browning. Brown these and the soup tastes of caramelized onion, which is a different soup
2. saute2 min
   medium
   + garlic + tomato paste, stirring constantly until the paste darkens from orange-red to brick and stops smelling tinny — raw paste is sharp and stays sharp; frying it in the fat cooks off the volatile edge and leaves concentrated glutamate
3. reduce25 min
   medium-low, uncovered, stirring the bottom
   + crushed tomatoes + bay leaf + sugar, uncovered so the water leaves. This is the whole dish: canned tomatoes are about 93% water, and the flavor you want is what remains when a third of it is gone. Do not add stock here — liquid added now just has to be boiled off again, and the soup spends the extra time scorching. It is done when a spoon dragged across the base leaves a track that fills slowly
4. simmer5 min
   low
   + hot stock, added only to bring the soup back to a pourable consistency after it has concentrated. Pull the bay leaf — blended bay turns medicinal
5. mix3 min
   blender, starting slow, vented
   blend until smooth, working up to full speed for 30 seconds at the end so the pulp and the fat emulsify into a body that will not separate in the bowl. Vent the lid: hot soup in a sealed jar builds steam pressure and lifts the top off
6. season2 min
   off heat
   + remaining salt + black pepper + torn basil + cream if using. Basil goes in off the heat because its aroma compounds are volatile and boil away in under a minute. If the tomatoes were dull, a teaspoon of vinegar restores the brightness that the long reduction flattened