Mestolando, where home cooked italian food happens.

Classic Tuscan bread and tomato soup

Pappa al pomodoro brings some of the simple ingredients like tomatoes and bread together in a warm flavorful soup.

Ingredients for 4

• 4 large mature tomatoes or 14 oz can of whole tomatoes
• 10-12 half inch slices of hard crusted european style bread
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 vegetable broth cube
• 3/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil
• 6 leaves Fresh Basil
• Peperoncino or red cayenne pepper
• salt and pepper for seasoning

how to prepare, taken from the video

Start by boiling some water for peeling the skins off the tomatoes later.

Then clean off a couple garlic cloves and add them to a large pot. Next add in 3/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil to the pot and put it on the stove to simmer at a low heat.

While the garlic is simmering peel the tomatoes by adding one at a time to the boiling water for a couple minutes until the skin of the tomato starts to crack. Peel off the skin, repeat until all 4 tomatoes are peeled. Turn down the heat a little so it’s not boiling while your working with the tomatoes.

After the tomatoes are peeled cut out the cores and slice them into cube like pieces.

Then check the garlic and oil to see if the garlic is a light brown color on the outside. If it is then add in the tomatoes, as well as a few pinches of salt, some ground black pepper and a couple shakes of Peperoncino (red cayenne pepper).

Next add the broth cube to a pot with water (4-5 cups water) and let it dissolve while simmering on a low heat. Make sure to stir around the tomatoes while they’re simmering.

After prepare the bread by cutting it into 1/2 inch slices. The bread should be a few days old and very compact and dense in texture. If the bread for some reason isn’t that hard it can be lightly toasted in a toaster.

Now after 10 minutes it’s time to take out the garlic cloves from the pot with the tomatoes, and add in the broth about 3 cups. Raise the flame a little to a medium heat.

Add in the slices of bread and break them up slowly with a wooden spoon into medium size chunks. Turn down the flame a little and let simmer for about 20 to 30 minutes with the lid on until a good portion of the watery mixture has been absorbed by the bread.

Then turn off the burner and let it sit for 40 minutes to 1 hour.

After that rip up some fresh basil and add it in. Then mix-stir everything together and taste it for seasoning. Season to your taste mostly by adding in some extra salt and maybe some ground black pepper.

The dish should have a thick porridge feel to it.

Before serving add a ‘C’ of extra virgin olive oil to the top, a ‘C’ is just a few dribbles of olive oil. If the Pappa al pomodoro is not warm enough, warm it up slowly on the stove or in the microwave.

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