Preheat the oven to gas 5 / 190c. Dice the shallots, celery and carrot.
Slice the vine tomatoes in half and remove the stalks. Place in a small oven dish with the peeled garlic cloves. In another dish, arrange the pepper strips. Drizzle olive oil and scatter some salt over the tomatoes, garlic and peppers.
Roast in the oven for around 30 minutes until softened and slightly blackening around the edges.
Meanwhile, over a medium heat in a frying pan, heat a tablespoon of olive oil and lightly fry the diced celery, carrot and chopped shallot.
When softened add 1 litre water and bring up to the boil and simmer for around 30 minutes to create a vegetable stock. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Strain the cooked vegetables from the vegetable stock and set aside to use elsewhere (such as in a pasta sauce).
When the peppers, tomatoes and garlic are roasted, place these in the power blender jug and add the vegetable stock. Fit the lid and blend on high until completely smooth. (Or use a stick blender if that's what you have).
Reheat the soup in a saucepan then serve or decant into a flask.
To make the basil oil, blend most of a small basil plant’s leaves with around 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil. Drizzle this green liquid over the soup when serving as well as scattering with grated Grana Padano and salt if desired. Serve with toasted focaccia bread rolls.
Notes
You can use 1 large onion instead of 4 shallots.Oil can be olive, rapeseed or infused garlic oil, or a vegetable oil. The photos show Extra Virgin but that was just what I had around and is neither ideal nor necessary.