The pappa al pomodoro is a soup of peasant origin, it guessed from its simple ingredients that are mainly tomatoes, Tuscan bread, so do not salty, stale, extra virgin olive oil and “smells” that are: basil, garlic, salt and pepper. It has become famous throughout Italy thanks to the Vamba’s book, Il Giornalino di Gian Burrasca, as the protagonist rebels against the bad food of the college asking to prepare this dish; pappa al pomodoro is sung by Rita Pavone, the star of a popular television adaptation of the Vamba’s book.

Surely being a soup with tomato his birth is assumed to be the late nineteenth century because in “L’emergere delle cucine regionali” by Pietro Meldini it is stated that: “… ..the tomatoes while being eaten raw in the seventeenth and eighteenth century, became popular only in the nineteenth century and especially in the kind of preserves and salsa … date back to 1860 the first attempts of hybridization and selection of tomatoes”. Today the pappa al pomodoro is considered, by dieticians and doctors, a simple and healthy dish.

Ingredients

– Ripe tomatoes 1000 gr
– Basil q.b
– 1 clove garlic
– Tuscan stale bread 500 gr
– Pepper q.b
– Vegetable broth q.b
– Extra virgin olive oil 100 gr
– Salt q.b
– Onion n. 2

Wash the tomatoes, make a small incision at the cross and put for a few seconds in boiling water. Drain, remove the skin and the seeds and finely chop with a knife. In a saucepan, heat over low heat 3 tablespoons of olive oil, then brown a clove of garlic, before it burn discarded it and add the chopped onion. Moisten with a little hot broth and let it simmer until it becomes tender. Add the tomatoes and raise the heat. Cook for 5 minutes so that the sauce shrink slightly. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Add the bread cutted into thin slices and basil torn by hand. Lower the heat and stir frequently with a wooden spoon to prevent the soup from sticking on the bottom. Continue cooking, adding gradually the hot broth, stirring often for about thirty minutes until the soup assume a soft consistency. Distribute it in soup plates and let stand before you serve it with a little oil and a basil leaf in the center of the dish.
Of fundamental importance is the quality of the tomatoes.