Hearty Garden Fresh Homemade Tomato Soup Or Sauce - cooking recipe

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil
2 large Spanish onions, chopped
2 large carrots, chopped
4 stalks celery, chopped
8 garlic cloves, minced
2 red peppers, chopped
8 lbs fresh tomatoes (This is an estimate, the \"true\" measurement is a gallon ziploc bag full or whatever fills my 8 quart)
1 tablespoon basil pesto (pureed basil and garlic with a little olive oil)
1 teaspoon chopped fresh sage
8 fresh thyme sprigs
1 teaspoon oregano
2 bay leaves
2 tablespoons tomato paste (I used homemade, made with garlic and bay leaves)
2 tablespoons kosher salt
1 tablespoon ground black pepper
1 quart chicken stock or 1 quart vegetable stock

Preparation

Saute first 5 ingredients in olive oil until soft in an 8-10 quart pot.
Make a bundle of the sage, thyme and bay leaves by wrapping them with string in cheesecloth (you can tie the string to a pot handle to make it easier to remove later).
Add remaining ingredients, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 2 hours. Let cool.
Puree through a food mill fitted with a medium blade. The use of a medium blade gives you a soup with plenty of pulp (you can adjust blade size if you like). Reheat and adjust seasonings as needed. Add a splash of heavy cream before serving if you want cream of tomato soup.
If you don't have a food mill you can also make this a semi-chunky soup, but I'd recommend a smaller dice for onions, carrots, celery and red peppers.
To make a sauce, return to pot after pureeing and let it continue to simmer over low heat until it reaches the desired consistency.