Zuppa Pavese

Hot broth poured over fried bread and a raw egg, which the broth alone cooks.

Beef, Egg. Not vegetarian — contains beef, parmesan whose rennet the source does not name.

Ingredients

• 1.2 litres strong beef broth
• 4 eggs
• 4 thick slices stale country bread
• 60 g butter
• 80 g parmesan, grated
• 1 teaspoon salt
• black pepper

Method

1. Have the broth at a hard boil. This whole dish depends on the broth being properly hot and nothing else being hot at all.
2. Fry the bread slices in the butter until gold on both sides, and put one in the bottom of each warmed bowl.
3. CRACK A RAW EGG ONTO EACH SLICE OF BREAD. The bread is there to hold it off the bottom of the bowl.
4. Scatter parmesan over the egg.
5. POUR THE BOILING BROTH DOWN THE SIDE OF THE BOWL, not onto the egg, until the egg is covered. THE BROTH IS THE ONLY THING THAT COOKS IT: the white sets, the yolk stays liquid, and nothing goes back on the heat.
6. Pouring directly onto the yolk breaks it and you get a cloudy soup instead of a whole egg sitting in clear broth.
7. Pepper, and eat it at once while the yolk is still running.

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