Pappa al Pomodoro

(serves 3 | 1.5 hours | easy)

One of those recipes that brings a ray of light and feeling of summer in your life and palate. It’s also great because it requires using old, stale bread—you can finally put to good use all that bread in the back of your cupboard!

6 ripe tomatoes – 1 onion – 1 carrot – salt and pepper – extra virgin olive oil – fresh herbs (I used marjoram) – 1 stock cube – 3 handfuls of stale bread – 2 garlic cloves – tomato paste/concentrate

  1. Dice the onion and carrot finely and add to a pot with olive oil, turn the heat onto medium. 
  2. Once they have softened, throw in the crushed garlic cloves. 
  3. Chop the tomatoes into small chunks and add them to the pot, with a squeeze of tomato paste, and cover with a lid. Turn the heat to low and stir every once in a while. 
  4. After 20/30 minutes, the tomatoes should have started forming a sauce, at this point you can add the chunks of bread, stock cube and 1 cup of water, cover again with a lid. Stir frequently, and if it seems too dry add more water. 
  5. Season with salt and pepper (be careful with the salt—the stock cube is already pretty salty!) and throw some fresh herbs too. 
  6. After 30 minutes, you should have a thick, soup-y looking pappa. Turn off the heat and serve or let it sit for a couple of hours (this is better, so the juices have more time to be absorbed). 
  7. When serving, season with some olive oil, fresh herbs and a sprinkle of black pepper.