Tuscan Bread and Tomato Soup (Pappa al Pomodoro) Recipe (2024)

I don't understand why you would instruct people to cut the crusts off the bread. I've made this with long rustic baguettes (50% crust) so stale they're hard to cut into. Perhaps it will take more than the recommended 10 minutes simmer time, but they definitely break down, and the texture and flavor will be great. Don't waste half your bread. AND don't forget to drizzle some extra virgin olive oil on it before eating. Yum.

Delicious and authentic Italian,
exactly as my Tuscan aunt makes it. Just add some cloves (5/6 for this recipe) and cook the bread in the sauce for a couple of minutes before adding vegetable broth (instead of water)

People like to embellish ("tweak") ancient recipes. Some add chicken stock to linguine & clams too. Nothing wrong with that, but the urgency of a dish made from very little is inevitably lost.

This recipe is incredible! I personally don’t like to cook with sugar, so I added some red wine to the recipe instead which seemed to work wonderfully.

I love this recipe as written; it’s a great way to use up bread. Today, I tried a riff on it by omitting the sugar and basil and adding ginger, chopped collard greens, and large amounts of Indian-inspired spices including: mustard seed, cumin, coriander, turmeric, fenugreek, asafetida, and curry leaves. I thought it was quite successful. In addition to loving the taste of Indian-inspired cuisine, I enjoy the aesthetics of seeing piles of colorful spices.

I took everyone's suggestions and made a very memorable soup that a group of people loved. It's almost always the easy meals that make the most memories.

This 'soup' was born from the poor, there is no way they would have cut off the crust! Also, replace the water (4c is way too much) with homemade vegetable broth for added flavor.

in florence, antico fattori (maybe still there) served this half and half with ribboliti...so great!

Definitely use vegetable or chicken stock in place of the water. Otherwise spot on.

Made full measure of tomato sauce but had less than half the bread. I still needed all the tomato sauce. Broke two eggs on top to make a mealroke two eggs on top.

I love this recipe as written; it’s a great way to use up bread. Today, I tried a riff on it by omitting the sugar and basil and adding ginger, chopped collard greens, and large amounts of Indian-inspired spices including: mustard seed, cumin, coriander, turmeric, fenugreek, asafetida, and curry leaves. I thought it was quite successful. In addition to loving the taste of Indian-inspired cuisine, I enjoy the aesthetics of seeing piles of colorful spices.

This recipe is incredible! I personally don’t like to cook with sugar, so I added some red wine to the recipe instead which seemed to work wonderfully.

I was looking for something to use some very ripe tomatoes. I read this recipe and took it as grandmas use up what you have. I had left over Hawaiian hamburger buns, some potato bread and hot dog buns. Cubed them and dried in the oven before using. Also had a cup of left over home made marinara sauce which I subbed for one cup of the water. Otherwise I followed exactly including basil from my garden. It was awesome! A great base recipe, one I’ll use over and over again.

My tweaks: I kept the crusts on my ciabattas (ciabatte?), and used chicken broth instead of water. Also, I used the immersion blender first on the tomato-onion mixture, and later to break down the last of the bread. It was a very crowd-pleasing soup--warming, filling, super-flavorful, and very slightly exotic comfort food.

A new favorite, great weeknight dinner that uses up your stale bread and usually wont require a trip to the store. Instead of onions (which upset my stomach) i started by sauteing a fine diced carrot and celery stalk then added double the garlic called for. I only had whole canned tomatoes so before i added the bread i pulsed it all with my immersion blender to smooth out the bigger chunks. I also used broth instead of water and drizzled with olive oil to serve.

I don't understand why you would instruct people to cut the crusts off the bread. I've made this with long rustic baguettes (50% crust) so stale they're hard to cut into. Perhaps it will take more than the recommended 10 minutes simmer time, but they definitely break down, and the texture and flavor will be great. Don't waste half your bread. AND don't forget to drizzle some extra virgin olive oil on it before eating. Yum.

Delicious and authentic Italian,
exactly as my Tuscan aunt makes it. Just add some cloves (5/6 for this recipe) and cook the bread in the sauce for a couple of minutes before adding vegetable broth (instead of water)