🇮🇹 Italy · Tuscany
Pappa al pomodoroTuscan tomato bread soup
A thick Tuscan soup of stale unsalted bread cooked down in tomatoes, garlic, basil and olive oil until it collapses into a porridge; eaten hot, warm or at room temperature.
Origin and history
Pappa al pomodoro is a Tuscan peasant dish built on reusing stale bread, in the same family as ribollita and panzanella. The tomato version cannot be older than the arrival of the tomato in Tuscan kitchens after the sixteenth century; it is described by Tuscan sources as everyday home cooking in Florentine and Sienese tradition.
Make it at home
- Makes
- 4 to 6 servings
- Total time
- 1 h 10 min
- Hands-on
- 25 min
Ingredients
- 300 g10 oz stale unsalted Tuscan bread, crust included; a plain country loaf is the nearest substitute
- 800 g28 oz ripe tomatoes, peeled and chopped, or good canned peeled tomatoes, crushed
- 4 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil, plus more to finish
- 3 garlic cloves, lightly crushed
- 1/2 small onion, 1/2 carrot and 1/2 celery rib, very finely chopped; optional, in the Florentine style
- 1 small dried chilli, optional
- 500 ml2 cups hot water or light vegetable broth, more as needed
- 1 small handful basil leaves
- salt and black pepper, to taste
Method
-
1. Cut the bread into slices a couple of centimetres thick; if it is not hard, dry it in a 200 °C (400 °F) oven for a few minutes.
-
2. Soak the bread in cold water or broth for about 10 minutes, until soft, then squeeze it out.
-
3. Warm the olive oil in a wide pot over low heat with the garlic (and the chilli and chopped vegetables, if you use them) and cook gently for 5 to 8 minutes without letting the garlic brown.
-
4. Add the tomatoes and a pinch of salt and cook on low heat for about 20 minutes, until they have broken down into a sauce.
-
5. Crumble in the squeezed bread, add the hot water and stir well.
-
6. Simmer gently for 10 to 15 minutes, stirring often and mashing with a wooden spoon, until the bread has collapsed into a thick porridge. Add hot water if it gets too stiff.
-
7. Turn off the heat, tear in the basil and season with salt and pepper.
-
8. Rest the pot, covered, for at least 30 minutes to an hour, then serve warm or at room temperature with a generous thread of raw olive oil.
Notes
- Tuscan bread is baked without salt, which is why the soup needs seasoning at the end and why ordinary salted bread makes a saltier result; season cautiously.
- Families argue over details: basil or sage, water or broth, plain garlic or a minced soffritto, a chilli or not. The sources agree on stale bread, tomatoes, garlic, basil and plenty of oil.
- Texture is a matter of taste: stir it down to a smooth pappa, or leave the bread in coarse pieces.
- It is traditionally eaten lukewarm or at room temperature as well as hot, and tastes better the next day.
- Related but different: ribollita (Tuscan bean and kale bread soup), acquacotta, the Alentejo sopa de tomate with poached eggs, and gazpacho (raw and cold).
Adapted from Pappa al pomodoro, Visit Tuscany (Tuscany tourist board) and Pappa al pomodoro, Labna.it.
At the festivals
No festival we list has printed it on a menu yet.