Papa Pomodoro

Have you ever tasted a tomato soup and thought to yourself, "hmm, this could go great with bread"? Have you ever eaten a great bread and thought to yourself, "Oh my, this can be just fabulous with tomato soup"? NO?? So you have clearly never tried Papa Pomodoro.

First time I tried this toscan soup was in A family vacation in Italy, about two months ago. First thing I did when I got home was to search for it's recipe- and I was really shocked to see there is no instructable for it! After a little research on the internet and attempts to make it at home, I decided to make an instructable myself.

Papa Pomodoro (Pope Tomato in Italian) is a delicious and special soup. The bread makes it very dense, the olive oil oily, the spices spicy, the tomatoes tomatoey... well you get it. This soup is for the whole family- from the baby that will love the fact he doesn't need to use teeth, to the child who will love the taste, to the teenager who will love being full, and to the adults who will love making it. In short, it is the soup for you.

I hope you enjoy my first instructable just like I enjoyed making it! Don't forget to vote to the first time author challenge!

Big thanks to my little brother Eitan who took the pictures

Materials (for a big amount):

• About 16 tomatoes, give or take
• About 1600 gr. of canned crushed tomatoes (you can use tomatoes instead, but then you will need to use more water)
• Salt and Pepper
• About 3 garlic cloves
• Olive Oil
• About 12 slices of high quality dark bread, 4 days old (you can put it in the oven for a few minutes if you don't have 4 days to spare)

Optional materials:

• Red wine (only a little)
• Silan (date honey)- only if you have in your area, if not you can use honey or sugar
• Basil leaves- mostly so it will look good at the end.

Tools:

• Kettle (or any other way to boil water)
• Bowl
• Cutting board
• Tomato knife
• Bread knife
• Cooking pot (of course...)
• Big stirring spoon

Optinal tools:

• Garlic peeler
• Garlic crusher

Peeling the tomatoes:

1. Turn the tomatoes upside-down and cut a little X on it.
2. Put as much tomatoes as you can in the bowl, pour in boiling water, and wait untill their skin starts coming off (it should take about one minute).
3. Spill the boiling water and pour in cold water.
4. Peel the skin off the tomatoes.

Cutting the tomatoes:

1. Put the tomato upside down and cut it in half.
2. Cut out the green part in anyway you like (I cut it off by making a pyramid-like shape).
3. Cut the tomatoes into cubes (about twice the size you would cut for salad) and put in the pot.

Turn the fire/electricity on medium heat and move to next step.

For the garlic:

1. Peel the cloves.
2. Crush the cloves.
3. Add the crushed cloves to the tomateos and stir a little.

For the canned tomatoes:

1. Open the can.
2. Gentely as you can, pour the crushed tomatoes into the pot (GENTLY. If you are teenage boys like me your parents will be very mad if the kitchen is a mess).
3. While setting a timer for 30 minutes, stir the soup so all the tomatoes are crushed. While moving to the next step, stir the soup every now and then.

For the Chocolate: I was kidding. There is no chocolate :-(

Now comes the trickiest part.

For the bread:

1. Using the knife, peel the bread's crust.
2. Cut the bread into small cubes- even a little smaller than the tomatoes. It must be small so it will become crumbs in the soup and not stay in cubes.

For all the rest:

1. After half an hour of cooking, put the bread cubes in the soup, and stir a lot.
2. When the bread cubes turn into bread crumbs, add water to get the right amount of density level.
3. Now for the fun part: add salt and pepper. every few minutes taste a little and add more of them or add the date honey (if you have).
4. After about half an hour you can add a sip of red wine, but it is only optional. Keep on cooking, tasting and adding materials untill you are happy with the result.

Serve the soup into bowls. Add Olive Oil (VERY IMPORTANT!). Serve to your friends, family and yourself.

Enjoy this soup and don't forget to vote for the first time author challenge!

Don't forget to comment if you don't understand a step and I will make an effort to clear it.