Roasted Heirloom Tomato Soup

I've often said (when looking at flower arrangements) that we can't have nice things. We have cats. Three of them. And because I deprive them of the joy of living dangerously and experiencing the great outdoors, whenever I bring something inside that would occur in nature outside, the cats freak out. And chew. And knock over. For example: last year, my friend Andy ordered a bunch of cool heirloom tomato seeds. He gave me some of them. I went to Lowes and picked up a kit to grow them in and sprouted little tomatoes on my kitchen counter. One night, while I was sleeping, one (or all) of the cats decided that the torture was too much and consumed the tops of my new plants. Hearing my tale of woe, Andy was kind enough to give me twelve of his seedlings. I grew some absolutely gorgeous tomatoes last year. I was dealing with several bowls full of tomatoes when one afternoon, Tyler Florence was on the Food Network suggesting that I make a Roasted Tomato Soup out of my late summer bounty. BRILLIANT. The first time around, I followed his recipe. http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/tyler-florence/roasted-tomato-soup-recipe/index.html
Of course now I just make roasted tomato soup like I made any vegetable soup. Simple, simple.(Although reviewing his recipe made me realize I could have used a bay leaf or two in this batch.)

Roasted Heirloom Tomato Soup (<-Liar there are hybrids in here too!)
10 decently sized tomatoes
3-4 decently sized sweet onions
olive oil
several stems of fresh oregano
several stems of fresh thyme
salt & pepper
4 cups of chicken stock
fresh basil (to taste)
parmigiano reggiano (optional)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cut tomatoes and onions into uniform sizes (think big). Add several stems of thyme (no need to remove leaves from stems) and oregano (go ahead and remove those leave from the stems.) I used the oregano flowers too. I think they look cool. They taste just like the leaves anyway. Throw a couple of healthy pinches of sea salt into the mix and several grinds of pepper. Add about 1/4 of a cup of olive oil over the top and mix it all together. I put it all into an enamelized pan and roast for 1 hour.
After an hour, I remove from the oven and let it sit for a minute. Now if I weren't cheap, I would spring for a food mill, but because I am cheap, I instead use a fork and some tongs to remove the skins and ooky seed chunks from the tomatoes. Also any stems from the herbs.

I put the pan on the stove between a couple of burners and turn them both on. I add four cups of chicken stock and let it cook down for about 30 minutes.

Then I puree it with an immersion blender. I taste and adjust salt and pepper. It ALWAYS needs more pepper.

To serve, I tear up some fresh basil and stir it in. A little sprinkle of parmigiano reggiano makes it absolutely heavenly.