Tomato and pepper soup with pecorino and basil

I never thought this would be one for the blog. I made this one monday night after a weekend away when I hadn't had time to shop and there were not many very exciting things around in the kitchen. A yellow pepper, a small handfull of cherry tomatoes. A piece of percorino cheese - small and not so fresh and appealing-looking any more even though it was still perfectly ok. Do you know the kind? They often get treated unfairly, the poor sods. Anyway. A can of pelati unearthed from the kitchen drawer and dinner was saved. While I expected this soup to be tasty and filling, I never thought that we would end up scraping the soup ladle with our spoon after we had mopped up every last bit from our plates. Use only fresh tomatoes if you can for even more summer in your plate, I simply didn't have enough fresh so I resorted to tinned.

Tomato and pepper soup with pecorino and basil (serves 2)

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 small onion, finely chopped
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 1 yellow pepper, finely diced
• 5-6 cherry tomatoes, halved or
• 1 tomato, chopped
• 1 400g-tin tomatoes
• 1 tablespoon sour cream
• salt and freshly ground pepper
• 6 basil leaves, finely chopped
• a small piece of pecorino cheese, grated

Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan, then add the onion and garlic and gently fry until soft. Add the pepper and cherry tomatoes or the chopped tomato and fry for another minute before adding the tinned tomatoes. Half-fill the tin with water and add it to the pan together with the stock cube. Simmer the soup for twenty minutes, then blend until smooth. Add the sour cream and season to taste. Ladle into bowls and top with the basil and the pecorino cheese. Drizzle with some extra olive oil if you like.

If you want your soup to be perfectly smooth you'd have to peel your peppers and tomatoes, even with a top-notch blender, there will still be some of the pepper and tomato skin left otherwise.