Tomato soup with stale bread recipe (pappa al pomodoro)

Every day there's a thought in my mind: how do I reuse stale bread that otherwise I should throw away? One of the easiest and funniest trick I know is to prepare the tomato soup also known as pappa al pomodoro, a dish that is part of the "poor" Tuscan cuisine.

Tuscan bread is called "sciocco" (litteraly "silly" in English) because it is made without salt; that would be, of course, the right bread to make the tomato soup, but we can prepare that dish with any bread available.

Ingredients for the tomato soup, 2 persons

• 200 grams of tomato sauce;
• 150 grams of bread (with or without salt);
• 1 clove of garlic;
• 1 chili pepper;
• Extra virgin olive oil;
• salt;
• basil.

How do we prepare the tomato soup?

Chop the chili pepper into small pieces and put it into a saucepan, together with some olive oil and the garlic (not chopped, otherwise it's too strong).

Light up the fire and let those ingredients brown a bit. Then add the tomato sauce and cook everything for 7/8 minutes until the tomato has retired.

Add some salt at will.

Take the stale bread and cut it into raw pieces, with your hand or with a knife and add it to the pan. Then, add to the tomato soup a glass of warm water and mix well.

Wait a couple of minutes until the bread is nicely mixed with the tomato soup. Put out the fire and add some chopped basil.

Let the soup rest for a while, covered with a lid.

Remove the garlic and let the soup cool. Season with a drizzle of olive oil and decorate the plate with two leaves of basil. Finally, if you like, you can put a bit of Parmesan cheese. Your "pappa al pomodoro" is ready. Enjoy yourself!