Italian Tomato and Bread Soup (Pappa Al Pomodoro)

Deep, unimpeded, sweet tomato flavor with swirls of garlic and rich velvety olive oil, bright fresh basil and, listen to this, your hunky crusty bread dips are already included! Make way for tomato and bread soup also known as pappa al pomodoro.

Pappa al pomodoro hails from the Tuscany region of Italy and is especially popular and fiercely claimed in Florence and Siena. It essentially translates to “tomato mush” and depending on where you have it and who is making it, it can range in texture from more of a porridge to a slightly thinner soup or stew consistency like we have here. But any way you have it, it is definitely all the yum. Just, all of it.

This recipe is from Marika Contaldo Seguso, an Italian cookbook author, and you can find her original pappa al pomodoro recipe in Milk Street.

In This Post: Everything You Need For Tomato and Bread Soup

• Watch How to Make This Tomato and Bread Soup
• Ingredients for This Soup
• Let’s Make Pappa al Pomodoro (Tomato and Bread Soup)
• What Kind of Bread to Use
• Why Dry Bread is Best
• How to Pick Out the Best Tomatoes
• Crushing Tomatoes by Hand
• Variations on This Tomato and Bread Soup
• Extras to Serve Alongside
• Tomato and Bread Soup: Frequently Asked Questions

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Ingredients We’re Working with For This Soup

The ingredient list for tomato and bread soup like this is always beautifully short, each flavor standing on its own. Here’s what you’ll need for this version:

• canned whole peeled San Marzano tomatoes
• dried or stale bread
• extra virgin olive oil
• garlic
• fresh basil
• vegetable/chicken broth

Because there are so few elements, you really want to use high quality ingredients to reach peak flavor. San Marzanos are delicious, fruit, and less acidic than other tomatoes. You’ll want really good extra virgin olive oil both for the soup and for the silky drizzles on top for serving. Fresh basil as opposed to dried here. And a good crusty white bread will do the trick.

Let’s Make Pappa Al Pomodoro (Tomato and Bread Soup)

As mentioned, this recipe is a little thinner than a more traditional pappa al pomodoro but by all means, if you want to thicken it up, you can adjust the broth/bread ratio (or omit broth altogether and just let the tomatoes serve as the liquid) until it’s so thick your spoon stands up! Which, depending on where you are, can be the mark of a truly divine pappa in Italy. You could also thin it out if that is more pleasing! Our texture sweet spot was usually a one cup of broth per ciabatta roll ratio.

Here’s how we did this one:

1. Tomatoes. Get your hands in there and crush!
2. Garlic & Olive Oil. Sauté garlic in oil until fragrant and then add your crushed tomatoes and let simmer for a bit. Then add your broth & basil and keep simmering.
3. Bread. Add dried bread to the tomato/broth mixture and simmer until the bread is soft. Then you can use a potato masher or whisk to keep breaking it down.
4. Serve. We served this with extra olive oil drizzles, more fresh basil, and ok also some Parm, yum!

What Kind Of Bread To Use Here

Italian tomato and bread soup is actually born of a time when it was the worst possible crime to let a single bit of bread go to waste (still feels accurate…we ️ bread), even if it’s a stale one. So traditionally, it’s made with very stale Tuscan bread, ideally left out for several days. Tuscan bread specifically is made without salt (which dates back to the 12th century when trade lines were cut off to Florence making salt super expensive!) and that meant the bread went stale rather quickly. Thus, this soup, and other delicious things like panzanella salad, was a way to turn stale bread into a dream of a dish.

Traditionalists say a no-salt Tuscan bread is the best here, but that is hard to find outside of Tuscany, so any crusty rustic white bread would do like:

• ciabatta (we used the rolls, cut up and dried out)
• boule
• any country-style bread
• any other rustic Italian or French bread

Your Bread – The Drier, The Better!

If you haven’t thought ahead and left your bread out (or just happened to forget you had bread and it got stale all on its own! Go you! That’s not an oops, that’s a yay this time!), you can cut up your bread and toast it in the oven to dry it out.

• Cut bread into slices/cubes or tear it up & spread on a sheet pan
• 450 degree oven for about 5-7 minutes until it’s dry (not browned), tossing midway

But again, if on a Monday you’re thinking, “Man, I’d love some tomato bread soup on Wednesday”, toss that loaf on the counter, friend, and just absolutely forget about it!

How To Pick Out The Best Tomatoes For Soup

If you find yourself with a glut of sun-ripened summer tomatoes on your hands, THIS IS YOUR MOMENT. All that fresh, unfussed, sweet tomato flavor is exactly what you want for this, so it’s definitely not the time for any hothouse, off-season tomatoes.

If you’re using fresh tomatoes:

• Roma tomatoes are a great option, but really any super ripe, sweet tomato would do
• Peel them by scoring with a knife, then giving them a drop in boiling water for a bit, and they should peel easily (tomato skins aren’t really a fun soup texture surprise)

But if you’re like us, you’ll want this soup easy and you’ll want this year-round and luckily you can have it! Thanks to really good canned or jarred tomatoes. Yay for simplicity! That’s how we do.

If you’re using canned tomatoes (like us!), some things to consider:

• San Marzano tomatoes are tops (very high quality, grown in Italy, lower acidity)
• whole peeled tomatoes (vs. diced/crushed) are best for optimal taste and texture

Crushing Tomatoes By Hand

Whether you are using fresh or canned, you’re going to want to crush those whole peeled tomatoes BY HAND. Yes, that’s right. Get in there. Not only is it a kind of delightfully squashy sensory experience, it really will give you the best texture. Some chunks of varying size and enough delicate bright red liquid.

When you blend your tomatoes, they turn kind of orangish once the air is buzzed into them so if you want to preserve that hyper-fresh, bright red, perfectly textured, fun-to-squeeze, chunky tomato goodness? Roll your sleeves up, friends, and get at it.

(Sure, you could pop them in a plastic baggie first and squish from there but where’s the fun in that?!)

Variations On This Tomato and Bread Soup

Though you might get a little side-eye from any Tuscan, especially around Florence and Siena, for adding anything but basil, garlic, tomatoes, bread, and olive oil to this soup, there are certainly ways you can play around with it! We added Parmesan to ours and it was delicious.

But if you’re already breaking soup laws, here are some other things to try:

• hefty shakes of crushed red peppers for spice
• some diced onion or carrot/onion/celery
• oregano
• a dollop of ricotta

Tuscan families could probably fight all day about their pappa recipes. To onion or not to onion, broth or hot water or “how dare you”…the list could go on! The simplicity of this dish and its ingredients is really what makes it shine though, so don’t be shy to let her stand as she is.

Extras To Serve Alongside This Soup

If you’re a rule-follower and don’t want to mess with soup laws, you can keep the soup simple and then just accompany it with some other lovelies like:

• this simple green salad
• some sautéed shrimp (see step 2 in the recipe card for how we did this)
• creamy white beans
• a soft-boiled egg (instructions for how to make this are in the recipe card notes)

You have options! But you also have swizzles upon swizzles of rich olive oil and peppery torn basil and deep tomato flavor that already tastes like bread dips. You really are set.

Beautifully simple, fresh, rich, and delicious. You cannot go wrong with this soup.

Italian Tomato and Bread Soup: Frequently Asked Questions

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More Fresh Tomato Recipes We Love

• The Best Easy Pasta Salad (dangerously good)
• Creamy Shrimp Pasta with Corn and Tomatoes (a delicious warm-weather fave)
• Basic Garlic Butter Tomato Sauce (put this on…well…everything!)

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