Pappa al Pomodoro

If you’re familiar with pappa al pomodoro, which is a soup, this recipe isn’t what you’re expecting. You see, when in Paris, my grand daughter wished to go to an Italian restaurant for lunch, so her mother and I chose Pink Mamma, a very nice (although loud) Italian restaurant. It was gorgeous inside, with a bar downstairs and an open kitchen upstairs where we were seated. I couldn’t really hear the noise from the kitchen because of the music, but it was all entertaining.

To start we chose torre di prodotti, which included burrata, Pappa al Pomodoro, prosciutto di Parma, and carpaccio di bresaola. I was not familiar with the tomato spread; it turned out to be our favorite along with the burrata.

As you can tell, on the left, there was very little burrata or tomato spread left. So I had to figure out how to make it. Initially I thought it tasted like a sun-dried tomato mixture.

To find Pappa al Pomodoro, the soup, I went to my favorite Italian blog – Frank’s Memorie di Angelina and there it was. Frank Fariello is Italian, and started his blog in 2009 to honor the cooking of his Italian grandmother. His blog is called Memorie di Angelina because it was at her house for “leisurely Sunday dinners” where his love of food and, eventually cooking, began.

I used Frank’s Tuscan soup recipe to create what I had in Paris, but with a higher tomato-to-bread ratio. At the bottom of the page is Frank’s printable soup recipe. Next is what I did to attempt to replicate the tomato spread. (But now I need to make the soup, too!)

Frank mentioned in an email that the burrata-pappa al pomodoro combination is interesting because burrata is from Puglia and pappa al pomodoro is Tuscan. I guess it’s an Italian fusion!

I’m out of my own passata from last summer’s garden tomatoes, so instead I purchased Tuscanini tomato sauce – premium Italian passata.

Pappa al Pomodoro, the spread

2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon crushed cayenne pepper
10 ounces passata
1/2 teaspoon fine-grained salt
2 tablespoons fine bread crumbs (see below)
1 1/2 tablespoons tomato paste

In a small saucepan, heat the olive oil to medium heat. Add the garlic and crushed cayenne pepper flakes and sauté just until you smell the garlic (maybe 30 seconds) and then pour in the passata and add the salt.

Simmer and reduce for about 30 minutes. At this point, stir in the bread crumbs and tomato paste. Stir well and keep reducing over the lowest possible heat. Total time about 1 1/2 hours.

Serve with bread.

And burrata. Or Taleggio. Some olives…

This is absolutely delicious, and it pairs so beautifully with the burrata. I will be making this again. I have to because it’s already gone! The heat is perfect, and so are the amounts of garlic and salt.

note: If you want to speed up the process, use 2 or 3 sun-dried tomato halves in oil. They provide a great flavor and are a handy thickening agent.

To make the fine bread crumbs, I places some bread slices in the food processor and processed for a good 5 minutes. Then I sieved them to only have the very fine crumbs.

Pappa al pomodoro (Tuscan Tomato and Bread “Soup”)
By Frank Fariello

Prep Time
15 minutes mins
Cook Time
45 minutes mins
Total Time
1 hour hr
Ingredients
1-2 cloves of garlic chopped
1 hot red pepper peperoncino or a pinch of red pepper flakes
Olive oil
500 g 1 lb fresh or canned tomatoes, chopped
Stale bread cut into cubes
Broth preferably homemade, or water, q.b.
A handful of fresh basil leaves for a summer version or a sprig of rosemary (for a winter version)

Instructions
To make this dish, you start as so many Italian dishes do, with a soffritto: sauté the garlic and peperoncino (or red pepper flakes) in olive oil and, when you just begin to smell the garlic, add chopped fresh or (out of season) canned tomato, along with the sprig of rosemary, if using. (If using canned tomatoes, you can just simply squeeze them through your hands as you add them to the pot; crushed tomatoes will also do.) Simmer the tomato for a few minutes, until it has melted and reduced into a sauce like consistency.
Add bread cubes mixing well so that they all get anointed with the tomato. Then add enough water or broth, mixing all the while, for the bread to start to come apart and form a fairly firm, uniform ‘mush’. (It should be firm enough to eat with a fork, although you should use a spoon.)
Continue simmering for about 5 minutes, then add the fresh basil leaves if using—no need to tear or chop them—stir and then take the pot off the heat and cover. Allow the pappa to rest at least 20-30 minutes and serve, topped with un filo d’olio and (if you’re a pepperhead like me) freshly ground pepper.
Notes
This dish is very good, perhaps even better, made a day ahead.