the night of the bread soup feast

This week, I found it really hard to get out of Italy. There's something about the simple and fresh flavours of rustic Italian cooking that I absolutely love. And I'm a fiend for Olive Oil. So for this week's cooking challenge, I made a really traditional and simple Italian dish: Pappa al Pomodoro. Babylon online dictionary defines the soup as follows, "The quintessential country dish and one of Tuscany's most famous soups, pappa al pomodoro is made of stale bread and ripe tomatoes...". It's a quintessential Tuscan flavour and relies on the freshest of everything: ripe red tomoatoes (you know the ones, all plump and juicy, yum), garlic, good Olive Oil and fresh basil leaves. The one exception is the bread which can be dry and stale, or straight from the freezer. I used some week old focaccia to avoid wasteage.

To complete the Italian theme for the night, I made a starter of Aubergine Bruschetta. Believe it or not, the best Bruschetta I've ever had is in a French restaurant, in Australia. And it was Aubergine, not the more popular Tomato bruschetta.

For dessert, what else, but Zabaglione? This dessert is said to have originated in the court of the Medicis, in the 16th century, and is another Tuscan favourite. I first tasted Zabaglione when I was 15 and working at one of the most amazing restaurants in the world (imo). Except there it was called Sabayon - the French name. I was surprised by how simple this was to make, though quite the arm workout.

Now onto the recipes..

dd.x