Zuppa di Pan Cotto - Bread Soup?

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launderess

launderess

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Was up late watching a programme on Italian Americans last night, and when it came to food, many of those interviewed (famous Italian Americans), "bread soup" was mentioned. Indeed one famous Italian American chef stated he would that "that" over any fancy dish served in the best restaurants.

Ok, just what is "bread soup" and how does one go about making it? IIRC,may have had it before when dining out, but as always the thing was over done and over priced. Want the peasant (pardon the phrase) version! *LOL*

TIA
L
 
Ribollito

Pan Cotto, or, as it's pronounced here in the Amalfi ghetto of Southern Connecticut, "Panney-Gawt", is the ancient Italian answer to Stove Top Stuffing. In Tuscany cooks would make a big pot of Minestrone soup, serve it the first day as a soup, then serve the leftovers the next day with chunks of stale(raffermato) breads added into it to make a sort of bread-soup called "Ribollito". On the third day, the Pappa would have more bread added to it and then it would be recooked in a big skillet with lots of delicious olive oil and it would firm up into like a fried pudding consistency. Ribollito literally means "reboiled" and in Southern Italian they just call it cooked bread. It's one of the best dishes in our local Italian restaurants and I think the mark of how good the chef is. Up here it's usually made with brocoli rabe (robbs), cannellini beans, tons of garlic, red pepper flakes, olive oil and ordinary "Italian" bread. The first time I had it was in the eighties at a former employer's home, where he was preparing it according to his mother's recipe with Savoy cabbage. I couldn't believe how good it was. Hard to find recipes in books for this, it's so home cooking. Try this:

Pan Cotto

1 pound dark green Savoy cabbage leaves, cut into 1" squares(you can use any dark green leafy vegetable here)
1 large can Cannellini beans, drained
4 cloves garlic, smashed
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 quart chicken broth
1 cup extra-virgin olive oil
6 cups stale italian bread cut into large cubes

Saute the bread in a huge skillet or dutch oven with 1/2 cup of the olive oil with the red pepper flakes until the bread is golden and crispy. Add the garlic at the end of the cooking and remove from heat. Set aside.

In a large saucepan cook the beans in the chicken broth for ten minutes, then add the cabbage and simmer only until the greens wilt. Strain the beans and greens out of the stock and throw them on top of the bread cubes.

Reduce the stock in the pan by 1/2. Add this to the skillet and cook everything together over medium high heat, adding more olive oil to keep the bread from sticking and burning on the bottom of the pan as the liquid is absorbed. You can occasionally turn the pan cotto over from time to time to bring all the crispy goodness up to the top.

Serve hot with lots of parmesan cheese over the whole thing.
 
Ribollita and Pan Cotto get cooked better in crocks

like this (actually should be a bit taller)

5-6-2009-10-16-1--favorit.jpg
 
"Peasant" stale bread recipes - Bread Cake

we 've thousand of such recipes, it's an heritage of the past empty wallet ages ;-)

Bread Cake

Put some stale bread in a large bowl and soak it overnight with a lot of milk. Next morning wring the bread (..don't spin it *LOL*) and put it in another bowl

Now mix it with chocolate slices, raisins, candied fruit slices, some sugar (but honey is better, just add it and taste to check if it's enough) add a bit of cynnamon powder if you like this flavour.

Prepare a baking pan : scrub it with some butter, then pour some crumbled biscuits on the butter greased surface.

Pour the mixture in the baking pan and put it into the oven @ 200°C . Let it bake for an hour at least

Someone likes it warm, I prefer it served cold ... with some whipped cream :-)

There is also the dark version : stir some cocoa into the milk before soaking.
 
Pisarei e Fasoeu

Sorry, in the previous recipe i meant squeeze out milk from bread (in italian squeeze and wring are just the same verb)

PISAREI E FASOEU (typical recipe of Piacenza - Northern Italy )

Fasoeu = Fagioli = Beans
Pisarei are kinda pasta like "gnocchi" or knodeln in German

BEAN Dressing

Cook a bit of onion and some bacon slices in some oil (don' t let it get browned, that's awful) then add some tomatoes (fresh/canned ..as you like) and cook the thing till it's quite thick. . Now add one or more cans of beans and add salt & pepper as needed

PISAREI

Crush some stale bread in a food processor.
Weight it and add the same amount of wheat flour and a bit of salt.
Pull out the blade and insert the "hook" utensil
switch on @ low speed and pour some boiling water nearly drop by drop . The mixture should be quite hard. If it gets too sticky/glue-like add a bit of flour.

Pull out the "ball" and work it by hand.
Make some "ropes" then cut them into small "beans"

Boil them in a big pot of salted water.
Water must boil very slightly, otherwise the pasta pieces crash into thousand micro-pieces.

As soon as the pieces float, they are ready : take those one floating into a strainer, then into a serving bowl and complete them with the bean dressing. A TRUE Parmesan "snowfall" is mandatory
 
All the cooks on Food Network make this (both Rachel and Tyler did this recently). Search their website for lots of recipes.
 
Thanks Guys!

Will give the "home" recipies posted a whirl the next cold or even cool day we have.

Toggles:

Have gone off FoodTV lately, just cannot abide Rachel Ray, and pretty much whoever is left. Emeril was fun and interesting, and Tyler's previous shows were as well (by the way, my has he put on a few pounds, guess from sampling all that good food).

However it seems most programs on FoodTV today are geared towards whomever is hosting's grand plans for selling something or becoming a "personality". Alton Brown's show was a favourite at one time as well, but now his constant mugging for the camera and such has put me off.

Give me the "Two Fat Ladies" any day of the week.

L.
 
Food TV

is not what it used to be!

I miss Sara Moulton, Michele Urvater (How to Boil Water,) and the SOLO (Essence) Emeril show.

I like the idea of "America's Test Kitchen," on PBS, but cannot abide Christopher Kimball on television.

Haven't seen Alton in some time, can't really comment.

Lawrence/Maytagbear
 
Lawrence, I agree. I have some of Michele Urater's recipes and they are really great, especially her Sunday pot roast and Blue Ribbon Beef stew. At that time, you had to send for the recipes, you could not get them on line. I still like Ina Garten. She is my fav. I also like Paula, Tyler Florence too.

Do you remember David Rosengarten, from 'Taste"?

PS: If you wanted the couple of recipes I have from Michele Urvater, let me know.
 
Professor Rosengarten....

I like his recipes, but found him smug and nearly insufferable on screen. (He has a PhD in Theatre).

Thanks, but I have the Michele Urvater recipes I want.

I miss Marcia Adams's programs "Cooking From Quilt Country," and so on. I grew up on Pennsylvania Dutch cooking.....Her books (mostly out of print, alas,) are excellent documents of vanishing food ways in the Amish and Mennonite communities.

I've been reading John and Matt Lewis Thorne's newest book, "Mouth Wide Open-A Cook and His Appetite," and it's very, very good.

Thank you!

Lawrence/Maytagbear
 
Taste and Two Fat ladies

Laundress. I really miss the Two Fat Ladies. I have their cookbook. There food was simple but very good. They did almost everything by hand, no mixers, processors, etc.

TASTE: Now I have a couple of his recipes. One that stands out is the Chicken Fried Steak with gravy. Delicious!
 
@ Bajaespuma : "pasta c’anciova e ca muddica"

Another recipe with "pane raffermo"
From the Middle Ages, before Mr. Columbus discovered America ... and tomatoes, here is a Sicilian classic recipe : "pasta c’anciova e ca muddica"
(pasta with anchovies and crushed,toasted stale bread).

Boil some water to cook spaghetti

soak some dried raisins in some hot water (15 mins).
In the meanwhile put some oil, a bit of persil [absolutely not the henkel's one ;-))) ] and a bit of garlic into a pan on the range (low heat)

When garlic starts getting "blonde" throw it into the bin.

Add the raisins after a trip into the strainer and some pine nuts

Now add some anchovies (cleaned from "bones" - salt canned anchovies are better than oil canned ones ) and push them with a fork : this helps them to melt into the oil.

When it is all turned into a sauce pour it in a mug.

Reuse the greased pan to toast some crushed stale bread. keep on stirring to avoid burning.

Pour strained spaghetti and the mug of dressing into the pan, mix ... and serve. Here parmesan or any other cheese is FORBIDDEN

Have to stop, otherwise I' ll put on some water to boil even if it's past midnight now :-)

http://www.cataniatradizioni.it/cucina/primi piatti/pasta canciova e ca muddica.htm
 
I've never heard of bread soup.
Sounds interesting and I'll probably try it.
I love to cook and bake especially something I've never tried before.
One of my personal favorites on TV was Justin Wilson.
The Cajun Cook.
 

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