Why It Works
- Periodically including liquid because the aromatics prepare dinner permits them to turn out to be meltingly tender with out browning.
- Poaching eggs proper within the thick soup and serving in bowls with bread makes for a satisfyingly well-rounded one-pot meal.
Even to kids, the previous fable referred to as Stone Soup can appear an impossibility—how can anybody be fooled into considering you can also make soup from a stone? But for generations Tuscans have finished one thing like that within the type of a dish with a equally grim identify: acquacotta. It means “cooked water.”
Like stone soup, there is not any actual recipe for acquacotta—it is constructed from no matter you possibly can scrounge as much as toss into it. The identify makes clear, although, that previously it wasn’t unusual for it to be little greater than boiled water with no matter weeds, shriveled and rotten root greens, sprouting garlic, and lichenous scrapings one might need managed to pry off the rocks within the fields. In such occasions of problem, it in all probability smelled of little greater than the determined will of survival.
Critical Eats / Amanda Suarez
In different years and particularly into the current, it is secure to imagine that acquacotta was a much less meager victual, and as a substitute was crammed with a season’s bounty that might fill bellies and nourish our bodies. These extra beneficiant variations are typically the way it’s made at the moment, even when the ominous identify has caught. As with so many issues, there are numerous variations of acquacotta that change with the locale, the seasons, and the prepare dinner, however the one I am sharing beneath is most related to the Maremma, a coastal area that runs from southern Tuscany down into northern Lazio.
Centuries in the past, earlier than it was drained by order of one of many Medicis round 1600, the area was predominantly marshland, and a malarial one at that. I’ve learn in some Italian cookbooks that the Maremma’s acquacotta was usually garlic-heavy, not solely as a result of the individuals beloved garlic however as a result of the mosquitos that carried malaria hated it. Consuming bowls of garlicky acquacotta may simply have meant the distinction between life and demise. That stated, at the moment’s renditions of acquacotta Maremmana will not be essentially pungent with garlic, although they’re constructed on an fragrant base that features onions, celery, garlic, and crimson pepper flakes (for a contact of warmth). The aim is to prepare dinner the aromatics till meltingly tender and candy with a light, clear taste, which you’ll accomplish by gently frying them in olive oil, sometimes including a splash of water or broth to chill the pan down any time the components begin to sizzle and brown. You retain repeating this course of, simmering down the liquid till the greens begin to fry, then hit it with one other splash of water when the browning will get going.
Critical Eats / Amanda Suarez
About that liquid: Because the identify suggests, you possibly can (some might argue ought to) use water, however after all you do not have to. You possibly can use a light vegetable broth as a substitute for only a bit extra taste. It really works both means.
As soon as the aromatics are melted down, tomatoes sometimes go into the pot—canned many of the yr, although you possibly can change to recent in the summertime—and it is all simmered collectively briefly till the flavors meld. Most bowls of acquacotta Maremmana that I’ve seen truly verge on thick-vegetable-stew territory, not a lot brothy soup (although brothier ones do exist), a reality that’s useful for the following stage of this dish’s prep: poaching eggs in it. The eggs are cracked and gently slipped into the chunky stew and left to prepare dinner till the whites set, at which level you have got a beneficiant and flavorful one-pot vegetarian meal that is filled with greens, protein, and sufficient fats to quiet an empty abdomen.
Spooned into bowls with garlicky toasts ready to take in the juices and topped with grated cheese, olive oil, and black pepper, it is much more than the identify may lead one to count on, a proven fact that I might favor to not quibble with. I believe we are able to all agree it is a good factor this “cooked-water soup” is in actuality not watery nor soupy in any respect.
Critical Eats / Amanda Suarez
Love Shakshuka? This One-Pot Tuscan Soup Was Made for You
Cook dinner Mode
(Hold display awake)
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1/4 cup (60ml) extra-virgin olive oil, plus extra for serving
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4 medium yellow onions (2 kilos; 900g), thinly sliced
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5 medium cloves garlic (25g), 4 cloves smashed and 1 left entire, divided
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3 ribs celery (6 ounces; 170g), thinly sliced crosswise on a bias
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1/2 teaspoon crimson pepper flakes or extra if desired
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Kosher salt
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1 quart (1L) scorching vegetable broth or water, plus extra if wanted
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One 28-ounce (794g) can entire peeled tomatoes of their juices
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2 medium sprigs recent basil
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6 to 8 massive eggs
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Toasted slices of rustic bread (or stale bread), for serving
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Grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, for serving
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Freshly floor black pepper
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In a big sauté pan or braiser, warmth olive oil over medium-high warmth till shimmering. Add onion, smashed garlic, celery, and crimson pepper flakes together with a big pinch of salt and prepare dinner, stirring usually, till softened and simply starting to brown, about 8 minutes. Add broth or water in small additions (about 1/4 or 1/2 cup at a time) to moisten greens and forestall browning, and proceed to prepare dinner, stirring usually and including extra liquid solely after it has cooked off and greens have begun to fry once more, till greens are meltingly tender, about 25 minutes.
Critical. Eats / Amanda Suarez
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Add canned tomatoes and their juices, crushing them both by hand simply earlier than including or within the pan utilizing a potato masher, ensuring to go away some tomato chunks remaining. Skinny with extra broth or water as wanted (roughly 1 cup) to make a chunky however brothy soup, add basil, and season flippantly with salt. Simmer till flavors meld and soup thickens up once more, about quarter-hour. Season as soon as extra with salt, if wanted.
Critical Eats / Amanda Suarez
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Crack eggs and gently slide into simmering soup. Season eggs flippantly with salt, cowl pan, and prepare dinner till whites are set and yolks are nonetheless runny, about 5 minutes. Discard basil sprigs.
Critical Eats / Amanda Suarez
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In the meantime, rub toasts with remaining clove of garlic, then organize toasts in serving bowls. When eggs are prepared, gently ladle soup and eggs (it will likely be thick and chunky, extra stew than soup) onto toasts. Garnish with a drizzle of olive oil, grated cheese, and freshly floor black pepper. Serve.
Critical Eats / Amanda Suarez
Particular Tools
massive sauté pan or braiser
Make Forward and Storage
Soup may be ready via step 2, cooled, and saved in an hermetic container within the fridge for as much as 3 days. Reheat gently and proceed with the recipe at step 3.
Leftovers don’t retailer or reheat properly, however in a pinch, they are often safely saved in an hermetic container within the fridge for as much as 3 days and gently reheated on the stovetop or within the microwave.
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