A Taste of Italy, Pappa al Pomodoro, Bread and Tomato Soup.

It’s not only the taste of Italy; it’s also the aroma and the different textures of Italian food and cooking that I love so much.

Having cooked and eaten so much meat over the last few weeks, a change was needed.

Simple, quick, easy.

Looking through the early days of cookingwiththejoneses I found a reference to a “bowl of stodge”
One that Les had promised to blog on at a later date.



Memories came flooding back; the restaurant was set amongst the Tuscan hills, a huge open fire that was used to cook the meat, old friends, new friends, red wine……….

“Bowl of stodge” the taste was amazing, stale bread, tomatoes, extra virgin olive oil.

Here is my recipe for Pappa al Pomodoro.

Serves 4
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cooking Time 55 minutes
Ingredients

• 500g Ripe plum tomatoes(cut in half length ways)
• 1 x 400g tin tomatoes
• 20 Basil leaves (roughly chopped)
• 2 Cloves garlic (thinly sliced)
• 3 tbsp Extra virgin olive oil
• 250g stale bread (I used Ciabatta)
• 400ml water

Method

• Put 2 tbsp of Extra virgin olive oil into a roasting dish, stir in half the basil and all the garlic
• Lay the cut tomatoes in the roasting dish, skin side up and brush the skins with the extra virgin olive oil mixture



• Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper
• Place on the middle shelf of a pre-heated oven 200°C/400°F gas mark 6 for 30 minutes
• Transfer the tomatoes to a large heavy saucepan, add the tin of tomatoes and water
• Use a fork to break up the tomatoes
• Bring to a boil, turn the heat down and simmer for 15 minutes
• Break the bread up into roughly 1"/25mm squares and add to the saucepan
• Gently stir in the remaining basil
• Simmer for a further 10 minutes
• Serve

Equipment

• Roasting dish
• Large heavy saucepan

Shopping List

• 500g Ripe plum tomatoes
• 1 x 400g tin tomatoes
• 20 Basil leaves
• 2 Cloves garlic
• Extra virgin olive oil
• 250g stale bread