Canestrini and Canestri: Vegetable Soup with Poached Egg

Acquacotta is a simple peasant soup, normally made with bread. It is not dissimilar to pancotto (only thinner), or ribollita (only less beany). Here pasta replaces bread as the starch. The remaining ingredients are similarly open to interpretation — in spring, one might add peas, broad beans or artichokes; in summer, all sorts of greens; in autumn, fresh mushrooms, and pulses in winter.