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Acquacotta — Tuscan soup with bread, egg and pecorino
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Source: https://recipheon.com/en/recipes/soups/acquacotta-tuscan-soup-with-bread-egg-and-pecorino
About this recipe
Acquacotta is a Tuscan soup of tender onions, celery and tomatoes, served over toasted bread with an egg and pecorino. This simple version draws on the cooking of the Maremma, where the vegetables varied with the season. The onions first soften slowly in olive oil, then combine with celery and tomatoes to make a fragrant, lightly thickened soup. Slices of day-old bread absorb some of the liquid but are not cooked down in the pot beforehand. The eggs cook directly in the covered soup and are served whole in the bowls. Aged sheep's milk pecorino adds a bold flavor, finished with a little basil and olive oil.
Ingredients
Vegetable soup
400 g red onions, weighed after peeling
150 g celery stalks, weighed after trimming and removing tough strings
400 g canned peeled tomatoes with all their juice, total contents weight
1.2 l water to have ready — 1 l for the soup and up to 200 ml in reserve
50 g extra virgin olive oil — 40 g for cooking and 10 g for serving
6 g fresh basil leaves — 4 g for the soup and 2 g for serving
6 g fine salt — 4 g for cooking and up to 2 g after tasting
0.5 g ground black pepper
Bread, eggs and cheese
240 g day-old country-style wheat bread, stale but not dried into rusks, weighed before toasting
4 medium eggs, about 200 g without shells
60 g aged sheep's milk pecorino toscano, weighed without the rind — 40 g for the bread and 20 g to finish
Steps
Cut the onions into thin half-moons and the trimmed celery stalks into slices about 5 mm thick. Crush the tomatoes, keeping all their juice. Cut the bread into eight slices about 1 cm thick and finely grate the pecorino.
Heat 40 g olive oil in a wide saucepan of about 3–4 l capacity and about 26 cm diameter over medium-low heat. Add the onions and 4 g salt. Cook without a lid for 15–20 minutes, stirring often, until very soft and lightly golden. Do not let them burn; if they start to stick, add a tablespoon of the reserved water. Add the celery and cook for another 5 minutes.
Add the tomatoes with all their juice and cook without a lid for about 10 minutes, stirring. Pour in 1 l water, add 4 g torn basil leaves and the pepper, and bring to a gentle boil. Cook over low heat with the lid ajar for 30–35 minutes, until the onions are very soft and the celery is tender all the way through. The soup should be full of vegetables but have enough liquid to moisten the bread and cook the eggs. If too much liquid evaporates, add hot water from the reserve; do not strain anything out.
Toward the end of the soup's cooking time, preheat the oven to 180°C, conventional heat. Arrange the bread slices on a dry baking sheet and toast for 8–10 minutes, turning halfway, until the surface is lightly golden and dry, without blackened patches. Put two slices into each of four deep bowls and sprinkle each with a share of the 40 g pecorino set aside for the bread.
Turn the heat to its lowest setting so the soup simmers very gently. Crack each egg into a small bowl first, then carefully slide it onto the soup in a separate area of the saucepan. Leave space between them and do not stir. Cover and cook for about 6–8 minutes, until the whites are set and the yolks reach your preferred consistency. For fully set yolks, cook for another 2–3 minutes. Do not add raw eggs only once the soup is in the serving bowls.
AI-generated Lift the cooked eggs out with a wide spoon and set them briefly on a plate. Taste the soup and add only as much of the reserved 2 g salt as needed, remembering that the cheese is salty. Divide all the hot soup and vegetables between the bowls of bread and place one egg on each portion. Sprinkle with the remaining 20 g pecorino and 2 g torn basil, then drizzle with the remaining 10 g olive oil, dividing it between the portions. Serve immediately; the bread will start absorbing the soup in the bowl.
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