OK, this was my first attempt at soup. There's been a few mushroom soups cooked up in my house, but I wanted to break from tradition and try something different.

This isn't a creamy soup. It has a flavour much closer to natural tomatoes, and as such is subtle and the natural flavour of the tomatoes accentuated, rather than masked or impaired as in tinned soup. Anyways, since I'm learning, enjoy and let me know what you think.

Tomato Soup

Ingredients

10 large tomatoes
A large handful of oregano
Stock
Cointreau
Salt
Butter
Flour
Milk
Cornstarch
Mozzerella

Method

Place tomatoes in a large mixing bowl and pour over boiling water to cover

After a few minutes take out a tomato and try to peel the skin off. If the skin comes off easily, peel all the tomatoes. If not, put the tomato back and wait another minute.

Place the tomato skins and 3/4s of the oregano back into the bowl of water.

Take a large saucepan and put it on a high heat. Add the butter and flour and mix up to melt the butter. For this recipe it doesn't matter if the flour forms into lumps

Add the peeled tomatoes to the pan. Mash them into a pulp and cook on a high heat, stirring constantly, for 5 minutes

Add a large handful of mozzerella to the pan and stir in.

Reduce heat and add remaining oregano. Place lid on pan for 15 minutes

Sieve the water with the skins and oregano into the pan and give it a stir. Add a dash of cointreau and some salt.

Place the lid back on the pan for 20 minutes

Add half a pint of milk and stir in. Mix a small amount of milk with a teaspoon of cornstarch and stir in to thicken the soup

Turn off the heat and pour the soup into a large container (I used a mixing bowl) via a colander. With a teaspoon, keep scraping and mixing round the bottom (inside) of the colander to get the soup out. Discard the lumps in the colander

Serve up the liquid in the container. Season to taste and enjoy.