From Tuscany, pappa al pomodoro!
It’s a peasant, poor dish extraordinarily tasteful made to use also the old bread.
It’s easy to prepare but you need very good ingredients.
In this dish is very important to distinguish the symphony of garlic and onion, the freshness of basil and the strong intensity of the evo oil.
In short, the soffritto is a matter of importance in this dish!
All the rest is made by bread and tomatoes which are actually beautiful and healthy even alone.
Let’s start working and you will be happy as soon as you will smell the kitchen overrun by onion and garlic frying lightly!
And while pappa al pomodoro is getting cool (that’s the way to eat it), you will feel like inviting all your friends for dinner!
And when they will taste this dish, they will come as guests even tomorrow.
Ginger’s guarantee!
INGREDIENTS
Tomatoes for sauce and stale bread, same quantity
(i.e. 1 kg of tomatoes, 1 kg of bread)
1 medium onion
2 cloves of garlic
Evo oil
Pepper
Salt
Basil stalks and leaves
First of all, the tomatoes.
They have to be tomatoes for sauces, i.e. tomatoes on the vine, roman tomatoes, or plum tomatoes, red and mature.
Then, the bread.
It has to be stale (3 or 4 days old), crispy outside and soft inside.
Remove the crust (but keep it for homemade breadcrumbs!) and cut the bread in slices and then in big cubes.
And now, let’s start!
Make a small cross incision at the base of the tomatoes and boil them for one minute to peel them easily. Drain them and put in a bowl with cold water, then peel and remove the seeds.
Cut them roughly.
Put in a pot a generous quantity of evo oil, some piece of basil stalk, the whole garlic, the onion cut in slices.
Turn on the flame and let fry lightly on a slow flame for 15 minutes to extract all the flavours.
It takes time, don’t be in a hurry.
When the garlic will be golden brown remove it and add the tomatoes.
Let them cook for few minutes and add some chopped basil leaves, salt, pepper and put the flame a bit higher, cooking for 10 minutes.
Now add little by little the cut bread (maybe you don’t need the whole quantity) and mix it to make it absorb the sauce until become a kind of baby food consistency.
If the compound is too thick add some vegetable broth.
Mix again, adjust in salt and pepper if necessary and let it cook for 15 minutes on a slow flame.
Then, let the pappa al pomodoro cool and serve it tepid or cold with some drops of evo oil and a basil leaf.
Mmmhhh, yummy!
What do you think? Leave a comment here!
