Monday, November 17, 2008

Zuppa di Pane Toscana

Or...Tuscan bread soup, as promised!

Some preliminary background and considerations:

Tuscan bread soup is a staple in the region. There are literally hundreds of authentic recipes for this soup, depending on who your Nonni is. :) Genuine Tuscan bread is dense, coarse, rather non-descript in flavor (has little salt), and only comes to life if served "dipped" with a nice olive oil, balsamic vinaigre, and seasonings like minced garlic, sharp grated pecorino or parm, oregano, etc. But you can tell by its very humble nature that it is what has sustained the farmers, shepherds, and warriors of that region for thousands of years. That makes it venerable as far as I'm concerned.

The type of bread used - wherever you get it - is key. It must be a firm, tough-crusted, non-crumbly, genuinely Italian-style bread. Rustic or "artisan" style, if you will, and day-old at least. Your typical grocery store small-"i" italian bread will not suffice - it is made with white flour and will become a slimy, mushy mess in this soup. As with pasta, the preferred flour comes from durum wheat, which breaks down more slowly than, say, its Pillsbury bleached white counterpart. My Pane Toscana recipe is ideal for making this recipe, but we hardly ever have enough left! Fortunately, it's an easy recipe, so it is worth making an extra loaf to be used for soup.

You might be able to find a recipe you like better than this by searching the 'net, but this one is hard to goof up, tastes great, and is one I got in person from a restaurant in Assisi on the feast of St. Francis 4 years ago, painstakingly and very roughly translated and transcribed onto a napkin (which was destroyed by BAD WILEY!). Anyway, the memory still cracks me up. Our waitress and I were staring at each other's lips, making wild hand gestures and pantomimes trying to get it right, and laughing like crazy. Granted, I'd had a fair amount of vino...but I prefer to think she was laughing with me.

So, after that long introduction....here's......

Zuppa di Pane Toscana

Ingredients:

* 2 - 2.5 pounds stale Italian bread, sliced and toasted (or, if you are a savage like me, you can tear your slices into large chunks/quarters for easier chowing)

* 1.5 qts (6-7 c.) whole milk, heated (be generous...you'll see why in a minute)

Tomato Soup Base:

* 1 lb. fresh, sun-ripened tomatoes (buy the nicest, reddest squishy-est plum tomatoes you can find off-season)

* 1 smallish onion, chopped medium-ish

* 1 smallish clove garlic (or more to taste), finely chopped

* 1/4 c. extra-virgin olive oil

* 2 sweet basil leaves, shredded (fresh is great, but also hard to find in winter, so don't sweat it if you use dried)

* 1/3 pound freshly grated sharp pecorino, Parmigiano, mozzarella, or even asiago (if you're into that kinda thing...) I've also chunked up a log of buffalo mozz. and tossed it in. Not bad at all.

* salt and crushed red or fresh-ground black pepper to taste

Directions:

1. To prepare the tomato soup base, sauté the onion and garlic in the olive oil in a medium saucepot (not frying pan!) until the onion becomes translucent.

2. Slice the tomatoes into the pot, squeezing them in your hand as you add them.

3. Season to taste with salt and pepper, simmer for about 15 minutes, adding the basil during the last 5 minutes or so (keeps its flavor better that way).

4. While the tomato mixture is cooking, preheat oven to 350* and heat the milk to very warm, but below a simmer.

5. Dip toasted bread slices in the warm milk, dunking quickly them so they are well-moistened but not soggy (a la french toast), and let the excess milk drip back into the pot for the next slice.*** (<-- I like a creamier tomato soup, so I toss the leftover milk into the tomato base at the end...I think this is what the waitress suggested, too. Totally up to you.)

***I use a potato masher as an improvised "dunking rack" for this part - rest the bread slice on top of the masher: dunk, drip, repeat....this is where the tearing slices into chunks came from. Masher's too small to hold a whole slice, and it makes it easier to eat!

6. Put a first layer of dipped slices in a round, tall-sided casserole dish, layer it with tomato mixture, then cheese, and continue until the bread is used up. Pour remaining tomato base over the top.

7. Heat in the oven for 15 minutes, take out and sprinkle with cheese or a little fresh basil for garnish - serve it warm with a tasty Chianti, Sangiovese, or if you like whites, some Vernaccia di San Gimignano
(<--best shopping day EVER!)

This is no-fail yummy, but search about and experiment with any of the zillion recipes you find out there. I have a Tuscan cookbook with a heartier winter version of this Zuppa that involves white beans and added root veggies, which I've not yet tried. I'll let you know how it goes!

2 comments:

Kasia said...

OK, I have to make a confession...

I hate tomatoes.

I don't hate tomato SAUCE, mind you. Spaghetti sauce, pizza sauce, marinara - all good. It's when there are chunks that I get grossed out. And don't get me started on the time Wendy's goofed up and gave me no lettuce, no mayo, but left the tomato on and I didn't notice 'til I was halfway through...I wondered why it tasted so gucky...

So I've never eaten tomato soup. My very stupid question to you is: what does tomato soup taste like? Is it like pizza sauce, or what?

Kit said...

Well....you can smush up your tomatoes more if you want to give this one a try, maybe?

Tomato soup was never a fave of mine until I was an adult with a Beloved who considers it a football weather staple. Now I love it, especially when coupled with a toasted cheese sammich or with Ritz crackers and little chunks of swiss cheese thrown in it. Mmmmmmm. But my one requirement is that it must be CREAMY, or it's too, I don't know, red and tangy for me.

And it's one of the rare occasions that you'll see me pull a can of Campbells out of the cupboard unless I'm cooking with cream-of-something or one of the kids is sick and wants Chicken & Stars.

I say splurge for 79 cents and get a can of it just to say you've tried it. Just use a canful of milk instead of water when you make it - and always follow Mamma Kit's mantra:

"Try before you cry!"

(Just ask my oldest...it's the preamble to 14.75 years of forced vegetable eating every night at dinner...annoys the crap out of her but works very well!)