I'm feeling soupy today.......

Been havig problems deciding wad to post since yesterday cos it's not easy trying to explain to you guys how all the dishes are made using words only and I don't have pictures to follow up...but don't worry, I'll try my best to find pictures to support my explanation for my dishes..Thanks

Pappa Al Pomodoro

As far as translation goes, it basically "Bread & Tomato" soup. this is a very classic italian dish which is actually quite easy as long as you the steps I give you. Also because there are chunks of bread in it, it's quite wholesome and you can eat it alone for lunch.

2 cans Whole plum tomatoes

1 tbsp Salt

1 tbsp Crushed black pepper

2 tbsp Minced garlic

1 tbsp Mixed herbs

1 or 2 pcs Dried Bay Leaves( fresh ones can do as well)

200gm Grated Parmesan Cheese

20gm Fresh basil leaves

50-80gm Stale Bread( cut into chunks)

4 tbsp Good Olive Oil

500ml Chicken stock.

(Serves 4 people, 3 if you're greedy....)

In a soup pot, saute garlic, mixed herbs and bay leaves till fragrant with olive oil, be carful not to burn the garlic and herbs.Add in the tomatoes and start mashing them up roughly with a wooden spoon.Add in stock, season and bring it up to boil and then simmer it for around 30 mins, stiring it occasionally to prevent the bottom from burning. The soup should have reduced a bit. Throw in the chunks of bread and stir, you start to notice that the soup becomes much thicker and chunkier. The bread acts as a thickening agent to the soup because there is very little moisture in the stale bread and once it's in contact with the liquid it will start sucking up all that flavourful goodness of the tomatoes.

To serve, ladle the soup in a bowl, drizzle some olive oil and sprinkle parmesan cheese on top and pluck a few pieces of basil or you can pluck the leaves, stack them together, roll them up and slice them really fine and just drop it on top of the soup.

Points to take note....

What type of bread to use?? definitely not those Gardenia loafs. You want something that has a soft and airy inside and a crusty outside. Like maybe a baguette for example, it's has a good crust on the outside and it it soft on the inside. Basically crusty, light bread is the ideal option. To make it turn stale, just basically cut it up and leave it in the open for a while. In Chinese we call it "Lao Hong", but to achieve ultimate results, lay out the chunks on a tray and toast it in an oven for 2-3 minutes on a 180 degrees oven. The heat from the oven will take out the moisture in the bread in no time.

As for stock, you can also use fish or vegetable stock to make it a vegetarian dish. You can choose to buy them off the shelves or make it at home. I'll teach you guys how to make it on my next post. In the meantime if u find buing ready made stock is too expensive, just add water, and maybe throw in half a cube of chicken or veggie concentrate if you have those on hand.