Tomato Bread Soup: Pappa al Pomodoro

This is the 3rd and final post in my Apple Series.  In the first post, we learned how to make an Apple Starter using hazy apples. The 2nd post featured Peasant Bread made with the apple starter. This post features Pappa al Pomodoro, an Italian Tomato Soup made with stale Peasant bread and Italian tomatoes fresh from the garden.

Tomato Bread Soup is a delicious soup, but it’s also a very practical way of recycling old bread.  I bake a lot of bread, and I enjoy sharing it with other people and sometimes the birds. I also like to make French Toast with sliced bread that has been frozen. However, I’ve been looking for some other productive and useful ways to use old bread. I was delighted when I learned about this soup.  It tastes delicious and it’s so easy to make!

 

Tomato Bread Soup: Pappa al Pomodoro Recipe

Makes: 4 servings

Recipe courtesy Mario Batali Food Network: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/mario-batali/tomato-bread-soup-pappa-al-pomodoro-recipe/index.html

Ingredients:

• 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1 garlic clove, thinly sliced
• 2 pounds fresh tomatoes, peeled, seeded and roughly chopped
• 3/4 pound day-old Italian peasant bread, roughly sliced
• 2 cups water
• 1 cup fresh torn basil leaves
• Freshly ground black pepper
• Grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

 

Featured ingredients:

Peasant Bread cut into cubes.  For authentic Tomato Bread Soup, you just tear the bread, but I had already sliced the bread into cubes so that’s what I used.

 

Some recipes suggest using Pomi tomatoes.  I grew Roma, Viva Italia and San Marzano tomatoes in my garden this year so that’s what I used. 

 

Directions:

1. In a 12-inch sauté pan, heat the olive oil over a medium-high flame until hot but not smoking. Add the onion and garlic and sauté for a few minutes, until onion is translucent.

   

    

2. Add chopped tomatoes and their juices and bring to a boil. I didn’t seed or chop the tomatoes, I just peeled them and used the back of a wooden spoon to break them apart.

   

    

3. Reduce to a simmer and let cook until the tomatoes begin to soften and break down, about 5 minutes.

   

    

4. Using a wooden spoon, add the stale bread chunks and water.

   

    

5. Continue simmering until all the bread has absorbed as much liquid as possible, yielding a baby food-like consistency. Stir in the basil.

   

    

6. Season, to taste, with pepper. Let the soup continue simmering for 10 more minutes.

   

    

7. Serve immediately in warmed soup bowls. Garnish, to taste, with Parmigiano-Reggiano. I actually forgot to add the cheese, but it didn’t need it. It tasted great!

   

    

   I was really excited about this soup, but when I saw the final consistency, I wasn’t so sure.  It looked like mush.  However, you know what they say about not judging a book by its cover… the same goes for this soup.  Don’t judge it by it’s look/consistency because the flavor is wonderful.  It was very satisfying to make something so delicious from recycled bread as well as tomatoes grown in my garden.  I hope you enjoy it as well.

    

   Happy Baking and Eating!

   Cathy

Peasant Bread and a Hike in the Mountains

This post is Part Two in my Three-Part Apple Series. The first post focused on making an apple sourdough starter.  This post explains how to make Peasant Bread using the apple starter. In Part Three, we made Tomato Bread Soup (Pappa al Pomodoro) with bread cubes from this bread.

Peasant Bread typically refers to a rustic European bread made with whole wheat flour or rye flour. It may also contain coarsely ground grains. Due to the addition of whole grains, it is usually a very healthy bread. This formula uses a bit of whole wheat flour and rye flour but the majority of flour is all-purpose or bread flour. I used a mixture of whole wheat and white all-purpose flour so mine has a bit more whole wheat than the original formula.

I love Fall!  I also love apples. As I shared in my previous post, I went apple-picking with a local Meetup group a couple of weeks ago.  You can see photos of that experience here.

We went hiking after we picked apples and saw a gorgeous waterfall. Here is a slideshow of the hike and the beautiful waterfall that was our reward for driving up a long winding dirt road and hiking back into the woods.  This was all part of the process of preparing to make this bread. It gets the creative juices flowing, you know.  I hope you enjoy! 

 

 

Peasant Bread

Source: William Alexander's 52 Loaves

Makes: Two 1-pound loaves

Refer to the list of ingredients here.

Learn the process of building an apple starter here.

 

Process:

1. Prepare the dough
At least 2 hours before beginning (or the night before), feed the levain as follows: Remove levain from refrigerator and add equal parts flour and room-temperature water (if you use about 130 g each, it will replenish what you use in the bread). Stir well, and let it rest on the counter with the cover slightly ajar. The starter should be bubbly and lively by the time you begin the bread.

 

Place a large bowl on your scale and zero out the scale. Now add the flours, one at a time, zeroing out the scale after each addition.

 

Separately weigh and add the salt. Add the levain, a dash of instant yeast, and the water.

 

Mix thoroughly using wet hands or a wooden spoon until the dough is thoroughly mixed.

 

Place a piece of plastic wrap misted with spray oil directly on the dough. Let the dough autolyse (rest) for 20-25 minutes.

 

2. Kneading and fermentation
Knead by hand 7-9 minutes until the dough is smooth and elastic.

 

Clean and dry the mixing bowl, mist with spray oil, and return the dough to the bowl. Place the plastic wrap back onto the dough. Ferment at room temperature (70 degrees) for 4 to 5 hours.

 

3. Form and proof the boule
Transfer the dough to a floured counter. Gently press down to form a round about an inch thick. Don’t press so hard that you press out the gas bubbles.

Fold the edges into the center. Form the round into a ball (boule) by moving around the edge several times and pulling the dough tight to create surface tension.

Place the loaves in banneton basket seam-side up, then cover with the greased plastic wrap.  Let it proof for 1½ to 2 hours. While the dough is proofing, place a baking stone in lower third of oven, and a steam pan on the bottom shelf. Preheat the oven to its highest setting.

 

4. Score and bake
After 1 1/2 to 2 hours, the dough should have increased in volume by about half, and feel slightly springy. Transfer each loaf to a peel that is liberally sprinkled with rice flour or corn meal (or covered with a piece of parchment paper). Sprinkle the top of the loaf with rye or rice flour if you want that country "dusted" look. I proofed the dough in a banneton basket sprinkled with all-purpose and rice flour so I didn’t do this additional step since it already had flour on it.

Make several slashes with your lame or a serrated knife.

 

Immediately slide loaf (including paper, if using parchment) onto the baking stone, and add 1 cup water to the steam pan. Do this quickly so you don’t let too much heat out through the open oven door.

 

Set oven temperature to 480 degrees F. After 20-25 minutes, or when loaves have turned dark brown, reduce oven temperature to 425 degrees F. Bake until loaves register 210 degrees F in center, about 50 to 60 minutes, with an instant-read thermometer, or until the bread sounds hollow on the bottom when thumped. Return the loaves to the oven, with oven off and door closed, for 10 to 15 minutes.

Remove bread to a rack and cool for at least 2 hours before serving.

 

5. Slice and enjoy!  Or, save it for use in another dish as I did.  See below.

 

Since this was the first time I had baked bread with my new apple starter, the bread didn’t have the full flavor that you would expect from a sourdough bread.  This bread will taste better after the starter has developed a little bit more so I’ll try it again sometime. 

I had another reason for making this bread so it didn’t bother me that it lacked the full flavor. I just sliced the loaf into cubes for the next part in my series. Part 3 of my apple series features a dish made with day-old Peasant Bread. Go to Tomato Bread Soup (Pappa al Pomodoro) to find out the rest of the story.

Happy Baking!

Cathy