Name: Florentine Pea Soup (Carabaccia)
Yield: Serves 6
Ingredients: 6 slices of day-old white, country-style bread, such as pugliese or pain de campagne; 100 ml/3½ fl oz olive oil, plus extra for the bread; 3 celery sticks, chopped; 1 litre/1¾ pints light chicken or vegetable stock; freshly grated Parmesan cheese, to serve; 1 carrot, finely chopped; 1 garlic clove, finely chopped; 500 g/1 lb 2 oz freshly podded peas (about 1.2 kg/2¾ lb unpodded weight); salt and freshly ground black pepper; 3 large onions, chopped

Preparation info

Serves
6

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

The Eagle Cookbook

By David Eyre

Published 2009

About

This is an absolute favourite springtime soup, making the best use of the starchiness of fresh peas (although I confess that I’m happy to make an ersatz version at any time of the year using frozen peas). Considered by the Tuscans to be primarily an onion soup, Carabaccia dates from the Renaissance, when it was sweetened with cinnamon and almonds. It is sometimes served with a poached egg on top.