Acquasale

Stale bread wetted at the tap and dressed raw, with nothing cooked at any point.

Vegan.

Ingredients

• 4 thick slices very stale country bread
• 400 g ripe tomatoes, roughly chopped
• 1 red onion, sliced as thinly as you can
• 6 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon salt
• a few leaves of basil

Method

1. NOTHING IS COOKED IN THIS DISH, which is the whole difference between it and acquacotta. There is no pan and no heat: the bread is softened with water and the rest is dressing.
2. Use bread that is genuinely stale — two or three days, hard enough to knock. Fresh bread turns to paste the moment it is wetted.
3. Hold each slice briefly under a cold tap, or dip it in a bowl of water for 3 or 4 seconds. Squeeze it gently between your hands. It should be damp through and still hold together.
4. Soak the sliced onion in cold water for 10 minutes and drain it. That takes the harshness off without cooking it.
5. Tear the bread into a bowl, add the tomatoes with all their juice, the onion, oil, oregano and salt, and turn it over with your hands.
6. Leave it 20 minutes before eating, so the bread takes up the tomato juice. Tear the basil over at the last moment.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Italy · All recipes