Recipes › Tomato (Specialty) › Specialty Tomato Bread Soup — Pappa al Pomodoro
Specialty Tomato Bread Soup — Pappa al Pomodoro
A Tuscan classic that was invented specifically for a glut of ripe tomatoes and stale bread, and it remains one of the most honest and satisfying things you can make in late summer. The specialty tomatoes melt down completely into the bread to create a thick, porridge-like soup that is somehow greater than the sum of its parts. Deeply savoury, perfumed with basil and garlic, finished with good olive oil — this is proper peasant cooking at its finest.
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Ingredients
- 1000 g Tomato (Specialty), roughly chopped
- 250 stale sourdough or Tuscan-style bread, torn into rough chunks, crusts includedmust be day-old or older — fresh bread turns gummy
- 5 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
- 80 ml extra virgin olive oil, plus extra to finish
- 400 ml vegetable stock
- 25 g fresh basil, stalks and leaves separated, stalks finely chopped
- ½ tsp chilli flakes
- 1 tsp fine salt
- 1 pinch black pepper, freshly ground
Contains: cereals gluten.
Method
- Warm the olive oil in a large, heavy-based saucepan over medium-low heat. Add the garlic slices, chilli flakes, and chopped basil stalks. Cook gently for 3 to 4 minutes until the garlic is soft and fragrant but not coloured.About 4 min
- Add the chopped tomatoes, salt, and black pepper. Increase the heat to medium and cook, stirring occasionally, for 15 minutes until the tomatoes have completely broken down and released all their liquid. The mixture should look like a rough, deeply red sauce.About 15 min
- Pour in the vegetable stock and bring to a gentle boil. Add the torn stale bread pieces and stir them into the tomato mixture thoroughly, pressing them down so they absorb the liquid. They should start to dissolve into the soup.About 3 min
- Reduce the heat to low and cook, stirring regularly and mashing any large bread pieces against the side of the pan, for a further 12 to 15 minutes. The soup should thicken considerably into a rough, porridge-like consistency that falls slowly off a spoon. Add a splash more stock or hot water if it becomes too thick.About 15 min
- Remove from the heat. Tear the basil leaves and stir half through the soup. Ladle into bowls and finish each one with a few more basil leaves, a generous drizzle of your best extra virgin olive oil, and more black pepper. Serve warm or at room temperature.About 2 min
Tips
- The bread must be genuinely stale — at least a day old. Fresh bread will just turn into an unpleasant stodge. If your bread is still fresh, tear it and leave it out on a tray for several hours or dry it briefly in a low oven.
- This soup is deliberately thick and rough — don't be tempted to blend it. The texture is the whole point.
- Pappa al pomodoro is traditionally served at room temperature in Tuscany, and it is genuinely delicious that way in warm weather. The flavours settle and deepen as it cools.
Ring the changes
- Stir in 50g of roughly torn black olives and a tablespoon of capers with the stock for a puttanesca-inflected version.
- Add a Parmesan rind to the pot with the tomatoes and remove before serving — it adds a deep, savoury note (note: this makes the dish vegetarian rather than vegan).
Keeping it
Keeps well in the fridge for 3 days in a sealed container. It will thicken further — loosen with a little water when reheating, or eat at room temperature straight from the fridge.
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