Pappa al Pomodoro

Bread cooked into tomato until it is a thick porridge, eaten warm.

Vegan.

Ingredients

• 350 g stale unsalted Tuscan bread, torn
• 1 kg ripe tomatoes, peeled and chopped
• 4 garlic cloves, sliced
• a large handful of basil
• 8 tablespoons olive oil
• 400 ml light vegetable broth, hot
• 1.5 teaspoons salt
• black pepper

Method

1. Warm half the oil with the garlic over a low heat until it smells, then add the tomatoes and cook 25 minutes until they have collapsed and darkened.
2. ADD THE TORN BREAD DRY, straight into the tomato, with the hot broth. Nothing is soaked in water first and nothing is squeezed — the bread takes up the tomato itself, which is the entire difference from a panzanella.
3. Cook 20 minutes on a low heat, stirring and crushing the bread against the pan with a wooden spoon.
4. It should end as a thick porridge in which no separate piece of bread is visible. A spoon stood in it should stay up for a second.
5. Add hot broth a little at a time if it tightens too far, but err on the side of thick: this is 'pappa', a mush, not a soup with bread in it.
6. Tear the basil in off the heat and let it stand 20 minutes.
7. EAT IT WARM OR AT ROOM TEMPERATURE, never hot from the pan and never chilled, with the rest of the oil poured raw over each bowl.

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