Name: Acquacotta
Yield: Feeds four
Cuisine: Italy
Ingredients: 500 g (1 lb) canned tomatoes with juices; 6 cups boiling water; sea salt and freshly ground pepper; 1 red pepper (capsicum); 3 celery stalks, finely chopped; 2 eggs; 4 thick slices of sourdough bread; 2 tbsp olive oil; 2 tbsp grated Parmigiano cheese; 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil; 2 onions, sliced into rings

Preparation info

Feeds
four

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Old Food

By Jill Dupleix

Published 1998

About

Acqua is Italian for water and cotta is Italian for cooked; a perfect description of normal soup, but completely libellous and misleading when it comes to the rich bright flavours of this traditional Tuscan soup. The vegetables are cooked in fruity olive oil, the boiling water releases their flavour, and the whole thing is enriched with eggs at the last minute. It looks a bit murky once the eggs go in, but the flavour is wonderful.