Bread and Cheese Soup

Name: Bread and Cheese Soup
Ingredients: 12 1-inch-thick slices of country-style bread to make crostini; Extra virgin olive oil for brushing; Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste; 8 cups beef (or chicken) stock; 2 tablespoons butter, softened to room temperature; ½ pound Fontina, shredded, mixed with 1 cup freshly grated Parmigiano; Additional Parmigiano for serving

0 Comments

Chef

Rob Chirico

View

Cookbook

Not My Mother's Kitchen: Rediscovering Italian-American Cooking Through Stories and Recipes

Published by Imagine

View

This image courtesy of Joseph DeLeo

Editor's Note: What can be more comforting than a delicious bowl of soup? This recipe for Bread and Cheese Soup combines broth with bread and two types of cheese, resulting in a soup that is hearty and will warm you up inside and out. You'll love how easy it is to make this rustic soup, too, as you can get it on the table and have it ready to serve within about an hour. You'll love having this quick soup recipe up your sleeve the next time you need to make dinner in a hurry! This recipe is a twist on the classic Zuppa alla Pavase, which includes eggs.

An authentic, and truly rustic version, is Zuppa alla Pavase. Eggs are cracked over slices of bread in individual soup plates and topped with Parmigiano. Hot broth is poured over the eggs, thereby poaching them. According to John Mariani in his The Dictionary of Italian Food and Drink, the dish was said to have been created by a peasant to “restore the strength and spirits” of King Francis I after he lost the battle of Pavia in 1525. It must have worked, seeing that the king lived another 22 years.

Serves6

CostInexpensive

Easy

Total TimeUnder One Hour

Type of DishHot Soup

Ingredients

12 1-inch-thick slices of country-style bread to make crostini
Extra virgin olive oil for brushing
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
8 cups beef (or chicken) stock
2 tablespoons butter, softened to room temperature
½ pound Fontina, shredded, mixed with 1 cup freshly grated Parmigiano
Additional Parmigiano for serving

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Make the crostini. Brush both sides of the bread slices with oil and season with salt and pepper to taste. Arrange on one or two large baking sheets. Bake until golden brown, about 20 minutes, turning the bread over halfway through. Set the crostini aside.
Raise the oven temperature to 400 degrees F. Meanwhile, bring the stock to a boil. Lower the heat and let it simmer until needed.
Butter the sides and bottom of an earthenware casserole dish or Dutch oven. Put alternate layers of the crostini and cheese into the bowl. Slowly pour the hot stock around the sides of the crostini so as not to soak the top layer of cheese. Bake for about 20 minutes or until the cheese has melted and is golden brown.
Apportion the soup and bread into shallow bowls and pass the additional Parmigiano.