You know how there's some times that you just crave rich, deep tomato flavor? Well here's the way to get it quickly… in Pizza Soup (a.k.a. Pappa Pomodoro). It's an Italian tomato soup that your kids will love! You will love it too because it will fill them up and it's inexpensive to make.

This recipe is an original TNC recipe. Go here for all original TNC recipes.

Tips for making Pizza Soup

• This is a great soup to make with leftover garlic bread. But if you don't have leftover bread, don't wait to make this soup! It's too good to wait.
• The best bread to use in this soup is sourdough. If you don't have sourdough then please follow my additional suggestions in the recipe below.
• This is a filling soup and you'll eat less than you think. Serve about a half cup as an appetizer, or no one will be hungry for their dinner.
• If you're tired of grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup lunches, try this. It has similar ingredients but different tastes.
• This is a great way to use any fresh herbs that you may have on hand. Just remember if using fresh herbs, add them in in the last 5-10 minutes of cooking the soup.

Pizza Soup (Pappa Pomodoro)

Rating: 4 forks (key)

Difficulty:

Easy – serves 2 adults in a lunch portion

Ingredients:

• 1 Tablespoon butter
• 1 Tablespoon olive oil
• 1/4 cup minced onion (if using dried onion use 1 T)
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced or pressed
• 4-5 ounces of sourdough bread, in 1 inch chunks (about 2 or 2 1/2 cups of chunks not pressed down) [TNC: adapt to gluten free by using gluten free bread, like one made from Pamela's mix]
• 1 teaspoon dried italian seasoning herbs
• 1/2 cup chicken broth or stock (and more for thinning if needed)
• 1 12 ounce can tomato sauce, diced tomatoes or whole tomatoes [TNC: if using diced or whole tomatoes, chop up with a food processor or stick/immersion blender]
• 1 Tablespoon tomato paste [TNC: I left this out, feel free to if it's too much trouble but it will give a bit deeper flavor]
• 1/2 teaspoon balsamic (or apple cider) vinegar [TNC: if you're not using sourdough, increase to 1 teaspoon vinegar]
• 1/2 teaspoon grade B maple syrup
• sea salt and pepper to taste
• 1/4 cup mozzarella cheese and/or parmesan cheese (to top the soup before serving)

Preparation:

Chop bread into 1 inch chunks, and prepare your tomato ‘sauce' if you're using diced or whole tomatoes. Place a heavy-bottom saucepan over medium heat. Add the butter and oil and when sizzling, add the onion. Fry the onion until it's soft and just turning brown. Turn up the heat to high and add the bread chunks and garlic. Fry until any liquid is soaked up and the bread begins to become crispy. Add the 1/2 cup of chicken stock and stir in, and lower the heat.

Add the tomato sauce, tomato paste, vinegar, maple syrup and italian herb seasoning, and simmer for 15 minutes. Add more chicken stock to thin the soup to your preferred consistency (it should be thick). Simmer for an additional minute. Taste and adjust the seasoning.

Ladle into bowls, sprinkle a little parmesan and/or mozzarella cheese on top and serve!

This post was part of Real Food Wednesday April 21, 2010

 

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Tagged as: bread, cheese, economical, gluten free, inexpensive, italian, kid-friendly, Leftovers, lunch, pizza, recipe, soup, sourdough, supper, tomato, tomato paste, tomatoe, vegetarian