heirloom tomato soup

Wash your herbs, chop up your onion, peel your garlic and core your tomatoes. Not sure how to core a tomato? Check out the step-by-step photos in my original post.Chop up your tomatoes into large chunks.Take your bunch of basil, your 5 sprigs of thyme and 5 sprigs of oregano or marjoram, and tie them up tightly together with some kitchen twine.To microplane garlic, all you need to do is get a cheese or small grater and rub the peeled garlic against it to grate it.Heat ¼ cup olive oil, the diced onion and herb bunch in a dutch oven or soup pot over medium low heat, until the onion is soft, tender and translucent, but not browned. You're basically sweating the onion here.Stir in the garlic and then quickly add the tomatoes and ½ tablespoon of salt.Bring to a gentle simmer and cook for about 10-15 minutes, or until the tomatoes are broken down. Make sure to occasionally stir the tomatoes.Once the tomatoes have broken down, be sure to remove the herb bunch and compost them.Stir in the 1-teaspoon of balsamic vinegar and the ¼ cup of olive oil.Turn off the heat.Puree the soup either using a hand held immersion blender or a regular blender.If you're using a blender, return the soup to the pot after your puree it. I always use my blender and then wipe down the pot before returning the soup to the pot, that way there are no chunks of onion or tomatoes in there.Keep warm until ready to serve.