Cooking & Baking

Acquacotta—Tuscan Peasant Soup with Cabbage and Beans

FOR 6 SERVINGS

When you are having a dish whose main ingredients are stale
bread, water, onion, tomato, and olive oil, you are nourishing
yourself as the once indigent Tuscan peasants did, when they
could take sustenance only from those things that cost them
nothing. If in the same dish, however, you find eggs, Parmesan
cheese, and the aroma of lemons, then you know you have moved
out of the farmyard and into the squire’s great house. For a
traditional Tuscan country dinner, this soup would precede other
courses, but it is substantial enough to contemplate using it as the
principal course of a simpler meal.
The great house this particular recipe comes from is Villa
Cappezzana, whose mistress, Countess Lisa Contini Bonacossi, is
not only one of the most gifted of Tuscan cooks, but fortunately,
one of the most hospitable. Equally fortunate for the guests that
are always turning up at Cappezzana, among the red wines her
husband Ugo and son Vittorio make are two that in Tuscany stand
out for their refinement, Carmignano and Ghiaie della Furba.

4 cups onion sliced rather thick, about ⅓ inch
Salt
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
3 cups celery chopped fine, the leaves included
3 cups Savoy cabbage shredded very fine
2 cups kale leaves, chopped very fine
1 cup fresh, ripe, firm tomato, skinned raw with a peeler, seeds removed, and cut into ¼-
inch dice
8 fresh basil leaves, torn into 2 or 3 pieces
1 bouillon cube
⅓ cup dried cannellini beans, soaked and cooked as directed on this page and drained
Black pepper, ground fresh from the mill
An oven-to-table ceramic casserole with a lid12 thin toasted slices day-old Tuscan-style or other good country bread or Olive Oil
Bread, made as directed on this page
⅓ cup freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese
⅓ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
6 eggs

1. Choose a saucepan that can subsequently contain all the vegetables
and beans and enough water to cover by 2 inches. Put in the onion, some
salt, ¼ cup olive oil, and turn on the heat to medium. Cook the onion,
turning it over occasionally, until it wilts. Add the chopped celery, turning it
over to coat it well, and cook for 2 or 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add
the Savoy cabbage, turn it over well, cook for 2 or 3 minutes. Add the
chopped kale leaves, turning them over and cooking them briefly as just
described. Add the diced tomato and the basil, turning them over once or
twice, then add the bouillon cube with enough water to cover by about 2
inches. Cover tightly and cook for at least 2 and possibly 3 hours,
replenishing the water when necessary to maintain its original level.
Ahead-of-time note You may complete the soup up to this point several
hours or even a day in advance. When keeping it overnight, if you have a
cold place to store it, it would be preferable to use it instead of the
refrigerator, which tends to give cooked greens a somewhat sour taste.
Reheat completely before proceeding with the next step.

2. Preheat oven to 400°.

3. Put the drained, cooked beans and several grindings of pepper in the
pot with the vegetables, stir, taste, and correct for salt and pepper.

4. Line the bottom of the ceramic casserole with the sliced bread. Pour
over it the remaining ¼ cup olive oil, then the vegetable broth from the pot,
then all the vegetables and beans in the pot. Sprinkle over it half the grated
Parmesan.


Enjoy!