Tomato Soup

Tomato Soup (Pappa al pomodoro)

Duration: 1 h 30 min       

 Difficulty: easy          

Region: Tuscany

The tomato soup is a recipe typical of the Tuscan tradition. poor Tuscan dish, of peasant tradition, born by reusing of stale bread, so as to create a low cost tasty soup. This recipe became known throughout Italy in 1912 thanks to the pages of The Newspaper of Gian Gale, the Florentine writer Vamba. But even more famous it became, in more recent times, thanks to the song by Rita Pavona, "Viva la Pappa col pomodoro" dek 1965. Today, however, it remained very widespread in Tuscany and is often presented as a main dish in many traditional Tuscan cuisine restaurants .

Where to eat it: Osteria Dei Pazzi – Firenze

Ingredients

For 4 people:

Ripe tomatos	500g
Tuscan bread stale	400g
Vegetable Broth	1 litre
Garlic	3 cloves
Basil	3 leaves
Extra Virgin Olive oil	q.s.
Salt	q.s.

Procedure

Take the tomatoes and after washing, blanch in a pan of boiling water for about 5 minutes. So you can peel them easily.
Take a pan, preferably earthenware, and after adding a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, add the chopped garlic. Fry the garlic for a few minutes, then add the tomatoes. Add the salt and the basil leaves and cook until the tomatoes have not formed a uniform sauce (about 20 minutes). Help yourself while cooking possibly crushing with a fork tomato parties not well dissolved.
Take the stale bread, and after cutting it into pieces, and place it in the pan. Also add the hot vegetable stock, so as to soak the bread. Give a good stir, and then the lid is closed and over low heat, cook for about 1 hour.
When cooked, mashed with a fork, the bread was still not unpacked, so as to form the pappa al pomodoro. If you want to add a sprinkling of pepper.
Before serving, let stand the tomato soup for at least half an hour. Then you can heat it again or serve at room temperature.

This recipe is the translation of the original italian recipe Pappa al pomodoro from Il Gran Consiglio della Forchetta.