Pappa Al Pomodoro

I've recently became quite enamored of Jamie Oliver. I was watching Jamie at Home one night and his recipe for winter veg coleslaw inspired me to get not one, not two, but three of his extremely large cookbooks from the library. I also did some research on his website and came across this delicious soup. recipe


I've got to admit, Jamie's photo of this tomato and bread soup (the one featured at the top of this post) looks about a thousand times more appetizing than mine (which I included less conspicuously at the very bottom). Regardless of my soup's looks, it's taste was spot on - bursting with tomato flavor, the soup is finished off with a good dousing of olive oil to make for a silky smooth texture. I also love that the bread is mixed right in with the soup - it removes that whole step of dunking the bread for me! 


So here is Jamie's recipe for a one-of-a-kind Tuscan tomato and bread soup. I made no adaptations to the recipe whatsoever so all the cute little British phrases used throughout come right from the man himself. Though this meal is definitely a crowd pleaser, I will warn you that it might not be the prettiest thing to come from you kitchen. If you give this one a try and it more closely resembles Jamie's dish, please do share!

Pappa Al Pomodoro - Tuscan Tomato Bread Soup

from Jamie Oliver

Ingredients

• 500g ripe cherry tomatoes
• 3 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely sliced
• a large bunch of fresh basil, leaves picked, stalks finely chopped
• the best extra virgin olive oil you can find
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 2 x 400g tins of good-quality plum tomatoes
• 500g or 2 large handfuls of stale good-quality bread

Directions

1. Prick the cherry tomatoes and toss them with one sliced clove of garlic and a quarter of the basil leaves. Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, put them in a roasting tray and cook in the oven at 180ºC/350ºF/gas 4 for about 20 minutes. The reason for doing this is so that their flavour becomes intense and concentrated.

2. Heat a glug of olive oil in a large pot and add the remaining garlic and the basil stalks. Stir around and gently fry for a minute until softened. Add your tinned tomatoes, then fill the tin with water and add that. Break the tomatoes up with a spoon, bring to the boil and simmer for 15 minutes.

3. Tear the bread up into thumb-sized pieces and add them to the pan. Mix well and season to taste. Tear in the basil leaves and let the soup sit on a low heat for 10 minutes. By this time your roasted tomatoes will be done, with juice bursting out of their skins, so remove them from the tray, remembering to scrape all the lovely sticky bits from the bottom. Pour them into the soup with all the juices, basil and oil from the tray.

4. Give the soup a good stir – you're looking to achieve a thick, silky, porridgey texture, so feel free to adjust it with a little water. Then remove it from the heat and add 6 or 7 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil. Divide between your bowls and serve with a little extra basil torn over the top if you like. The most important thing with this soup is that you have a wonderfully intense sweet tomato basil flavour.