This recipe has medieval origins, being the typical dish of the recovery cuisine of the peasant culture. The various regions use different names (Lombard “panada”, Ligurian “pancheuto”, Sardinian “cottu” bread, in Lazio “pancotto”) with different ingredients. It seems that Garibaldi himself ate this dish in Lecce during a clandestine meeting of the anti-Bourbon conspirators.
I hate throwing away old bread. I have tons of recovery recipes to use when it’s stale. One of those I prefer to make in winter is Pancotto, naturally with a little tomato because I eat almost nothing white!
Pancotto: cooked bread
- Preparation time: 20 minutes
- Ingredients for 4 servings
- Difficulty: Easy recipe
- Ingredients
- 12 oz (320 grams) of slices of stale durum wheat bread without crust
- 6 tablespoons of tomato puree
- 4 glasses of water
- Extra virgin olive oil to taste
- Salt to taste
- Grated Pecorino Romano to taste
- Instructions
- Cut the stale bread into small pieces.
- Put the bread, peeled tomatoes, and water in a saucepan and cook, stirring continuously until it turns into a cream. It will take about ten minutes. To make the soup creamier, use the hand blender.
- Season with salt, oil, and grated pecorino before serving.
Tips to ensure the success of the dish:
- Use high quality bread.
- Boil four ladles of water in a saucepan to add to the Pancotto a little at a time to be sure that the dish is creamy, but not liquid.
