Make your kitchen smell outright divine with this Tuscan-based slow roasted tomato bread soup, Pappa al Pomodoro. Home-grown tomatoes, in-season, peasant cooking (using stale bread)- a perfect example of Slow Food. Our tomato plants are thriving in this long warm summer in Italy, the colors deepening & the flavors intensifying as the days go by. Originating in Tuscany (about an hour away) we can't resist sharing this mouthwatering recipe at our farmhouse using our plump andjuicy homegrown piccadilly & cherry tomatoes!
(I've posted this recipe before, but since today we started jarring the first batch of jarred/canned tomatoes it was only fitting to post a delicious tomato recipe & this is what's cooking for dinner & one of my absolute favs!!)
Serves 4
1/2 kilo of ripe cherry tomatoes
few cloves of garlic, peeled & sliced
large bunch of basil, set aside soft stems for later (chopped)
good extra virgin olive oil
salt & pepper
2 medium cans of good quality tomatoes
2 big handfuls of good stale bread, crusts removed
olive oil for cooking
Preheat oven to 375 F / 190 C
Toss cherry tomatoes with oil, 1 clove of garlic chopped, 1/3 of your basil, salt & pepper. Place on a cookie/baking sheet. Place in oven for 20 minutes or until the tomatoes burst open.
In a heavy bottomed pot, heat a couple glugs of olive oil SLOWLY cooking your garlic & basil until soft for a couple minutes. Turn up heat, add tomatoes & 1 can of water. Break up tomatoes with back of a wooden spoon. Simmer for 15 minutes.
Tear bread into bite size pieces, mixing well.
Season with salt & pepper.
Turn down heat, cooking for another 10 minutes.
When cherry tomatoes are done cooking add them to the soup. Make sure to scrap all the good, caramelized juicy bits from your pan into the soup.
Stir & taste check. You are looking for a thick soup. If it is too dry, adjust with water. When you are happy with the consistency remove from heat. Stir in 7-8 tablespoons of good extra virgin olive oil and torn basil leaves.
Serve warm or hot.
Hey guys! Really looking forward to making this but have one question about the basil. You say to save the basil stems for later; do you saute those with the garlic? In the directions it says to saute the garlic and basil together and I'm assuming you'd saute the stems not the leaves. This looks fantastic!
ReplyDeleteWell done. but!
ReplyDeleteThe original one is quite different....
Oil and garlic together until is brown, then basil and bread well tear bread (from the last week)till its brown, remove the garlic crushed with but not pealed, fresh cutted tomato pealed and no seeds...let them cooking for few minutes then add some vegetable broth and passata di pomodoro......let them go slowly, add some salt if necessary, then serve hot or warm......and let me know!
Enrico
thanks for sharing..
ReplyDelete