Creamy tomato soup

Do you love tomatoes?  Do you love creamy (literally) soup?  Then here's the recipe for you.

Once again I found myself with a lot of tomatoes.  Friends and neighbors have been generous and we really appreciate it.  

This soup is quite delicious. Rich yet not too heavy.  I didn't have a couple things on hand so I substituted. I didn't have plain tomato juice so I used Clamato.  If you use Clamato you could skip the salt.  It gave it a great flavor.  Also, I was out of chicken stock so I used water with chicken bouillon cubes.  It was still very good and I will make it again.  It's so worth the effort.    

10-12 Roma Tomatoes, peeled (other types of tomatoes work fine too)
(or, in a pinch, you can use 1 can (28 oz.) whole tomatoes drained.)
3 C. tomato juice (I used Clamato)
2 C. chicken stock (homemade is best)  I used chicken bouillon.
salt and pepper to taste
garlic powder
2-3 tsp. dried basil leaves
*1 1/2 C. heavy whipping cream
*3/4 C. (1 1/2 stick) unsalted butter cut into pieces and slightly softened
*freshly grated Parmesan cheese
*15 or more fresh basil leaves

Combine tomatoes, tomato juice, and chicken stock in a large saucepan. Add dried basil. Bring to a boil, turn down heat, and simmer 30 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to transfer tomatoes in batches to a food processor or blender and process on a pulse setting (it's nice to have a few small chunks remaining). Return the tomato mixture to the liquid in the saucepan and simmer over low heat. Slowly whisk in cream and softened butter. Whisk until butter is melted and soup is thoroughly heated. Top each soup bowl with freshly grated Parmesan cheese and chopped fresh basil.