Pappa al Pomodoro

What is Pappa al pomodoro?

Pappa, the dish of the heart in many parts of Tuscany but above all a signature dish in Florence, is simply bread cooked with oil and garlic, and scented with basil, with tomato as the indispensable base. The bread is absolutely Tuscan bread, ‘sciocco’ (without salt) as they say in Tuscany. It can be made more or less savoury with onion and chilli pepper, but, strictly according to tradition, it should be served with a little finely chopped fresh garlic. However, pappa al pomodoro, which expresses the tradition for Florentines, has an infinite variety of executions: the subtle differences can almost tell us which district, zone or surroundings it comes from, but it is widely known as "Cucina Povera"

Rules to follow

Never add cheese!

It should be served neither hot nor cold, but lukewarm! 

The bread should be used stale, i.e. it should be neither fresh nor dry, because only an ‘intermediate’ seasoning allows the bread to retain, while cooking, the structure necessary for the success of the dish, without becoming either slippery or sticky.

Ingredients

• Ripe sauce tomatoes (or peeled tomatoes, including liquid)
• Garlic
• Red onion
• Celery
• Carrot
• Basil (or sage, if absent)
• Tuscan bread 
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Chilli powder (optional)

Method

After having chopped the onion, carrot and celery, sauté with oil until it has a nice, even golden brown colour. Then add the tomato and cook for about 20 minutes. In the meantime, soak the bread in fresh water and, when soaked, squeeze it out and add it to the cooking sauce and mix everything together well, leaving it to take on flavour for about ten minutes, stirring often. Then chop the garlic very finely and cut the basil into strips, add them to the soup with salt and oil. Let the soup rest for at least half an hour, as it is also good served at room temperature.

After chopping the onion, carrot and celery, sauté in oil until it has a nice, even golden brown colour. Then add the tomato and cook for about 20 minutes. In the meantime, soak the bread in fresh water and, when soaked, squeeze it out and add it to the cooking sauce and mix everything together well, leaving it to take on flavour for about ten minutes, stirring often. Then chop the garlic very finely and cut the basil into strips, add them to the soup with salt and oil. Let the soup rest for at least half an hour, as it is also good served at room temperature.

Wine pairing

A possible and appetising pairing can be with a white wine. The important thing is that it is full-bodied, aromatic and slightly soft. A white wine both because it is a dish that prefers non-cold outside temperatures (summer) and a red would overpower the flavour of the tomato. 

A particularly rich bouquet of aromas in the wine can give nice ‘concordance’ with the aromaticity of the basil, while a structured white wine would be optimal to ‘contrast’ the apparent simplicity of the dish, which in reality has a particularly sharp, distinct and sometimes accentuated flavour due to any spices.

Ultimately, either a Chardonnay, a Sauvignon Blanc (why not, grown in Tuscany) or even a Vernaccia di San Giminiano (Riserva)

 

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Reviews

4.9 9 reviews

1. Nothing fancy. Everything right.

   Ryan M.

   Vancouver, Canada · June 2026

2. I read the whole thing before starting, as it suggests, and for once I was not scrambling halfway through.

   Bram D.

   Amsterdam, Netherlands · May 2026

3. Made it for the friends we travelled with and it turned into a whole evening of remembering. Somebody found the photographs, somebody else found the map. We have provisionally agreed to go back. This recipe is going to cost me a flight.

   Marco T.

   Rome, Italy · December 2025

4. My grandmother made something close to this and I had never found the method written down properly. Now I have.

   Joost M.

   Eindhoven, Netherlands · October 2025

Show all 9 reviews