Acquacotta
The first time I made this soup was about 6 or 7 years ago. I followed the recipe to the letter from one of the River Café cookbooks. Nowadays when I prepare this dish I don’t refer to the book. In fact it has transformed over the years from their original formula (a bit like me).
The beauty of this soup is in the simplicity and that it doesn’t require stock, like most other soups do. Traditionally you use plain water instead. That’s why it is called “Acquacotta”. It literally means “cooked water” in Italian.
Mike and I adore this soup. It really is a feast. The poached egg makes it complete. It is also a fabulous hang over cure. When I was a single guy, I remember coming home after a night out on the prowl, desperate, dateless and very drunk. This soup tasted heavenly at 6am in the morning. Of course I didn’t make it from scratch at the crack of dawn (and in such a state of inebriation). I had the soup in the fridge, ready to go. All that was needed was to heat the soup, toast the bread and poach the egg. Even when I am blind drunk I can put together a good dish! Of course it tastes just as good without the hangover.
The beauty of this soup is in the simplicity and that it doesn’t require stock, like most other soups do. Traditionally you use plain water instead. That’s why it is called “Acquacotta”. It literally means “cooked water” in Italian.
Mike and I adore this soup. It really is a feast. The poached egg makes it complete. It is also a fabulous hang over cure. When I was a single guy, I remember coming home after a night out on the prowl, desperate, dateless and very drunk. This soup tasted heavenly at 6am in the morning. Of course I didn’t make it from scratch at the crack of dawn (and in such a state of inebriation). I had the soup in the fridge, ready to go. All that was needed was to heat the soup, toast the bread and poach the egg. Even when I am blind drunk I can put together a good dish! Of course it tastes just as good without the hangover.
This is how I prepare my Acquacotta (enough for 4-6 serves):
Soak about 50g of dried porcini in boiling water.
In the meantime chop into 1cm cubes- 1 large red onion, 2 medium peeled carrots, 4 celery stalks and 200g swiss brown mushrooms.
Strain the porcini through a tissue lined sieve and reserve the liquid. Rinse the porcini pieces under a tap of running water and ensure all the grit is removed.
Place all your chopped veggies and a few spoonfuls of olive oil into a soup pot. Cover the pot and sweat the veggies for 30 minutes. Add a couple of fresh bay leaves and some chopped fresh rosemary and parsley too.
Open a tin of Italian tomatoes (400g) and crush them to a rough puree. Add the tomatoes with their juice and porcini liquid to the softened vegetables, and enough water to make a soupy consistency. Season with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.
Simmer for 30- 60 minutes, the longer the better. Adjust the seasoning and correct the consistency by adding more water if it needs it. Not too thick, not too thin. Somewhere in between is right. Just like Goldilocks liked it…
Toast slices of dense crusty bread. I like to use my char grill, but a regular grill will suffice. Whilst the bread is toasting, poach one egg per serve (free range or organic please). Have ready a peppery and intensely flavoured green olive oil to drizzle.
For the final construction, watch my visual demonstration.
Until next time…
Soak about 50g of dried porcini in boiling water.
In the meantime chop into 1cm cubes- 1 large red onion, 2 medium peeled carrots, 4 celery stalks and 200g swiss brown mushrooms.
Strain the porcini through a tissue lined sieve and reserve the liquid. Rinse the porcini pieces under a tap of running water and ensure all the grit is removed.
Place all your chopped veggies and a few spoonfuls of olive oil into a soup pot. Cover the pot and sweat the veggies for 30 minutes. Add a couple of fresh bay leaves and some chopped fresh rosemary and parsley too.
Open a tin of Italian tomatoes (400g) and crush them to a rough puree. Add the tomatoes with their juice and porcini liquid to the softened vegetables, and enough water to make a soupy consistency. Season with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.
Simmer for 30- 60 minutes, the longer the better. Adjust the seasoning and correct the consistency by adding more water if it needs it. Not too thick, not too thin. Somewhere in between is right. Just like Goldilocks liked it…
Toast slices of dense crusty bread. I like to use my char grill, but a regular grill will suffice. Whilst the bread is toasting, poach one egg per serve (free range or organic please). Have ready a peppery and intensely flavoured green olive oil to drizzle.
For the final construction, watch my visual demonstration.
Until next time…
1 comment:
This sounds fabulous. It certainly is a pretty impressive hangover cure! I'm lucky if I have it in me to drag myself out of bed for bacon and eggs. It looks like an incredibly elegant dish too!
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