Onion soup with egg (acquacotta)
4 servings
Ingredients
| Quantity | Ingredient | |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | tablespoons | Olive oil; up to 3 |
| 1 | large | Onion; sliced |
| 2 | Garlic cloves; chopped | |
| 1 | Celery stick; chopped | |
| 200 | grams | Large flat or wild mushrooms; sliced or chopped |
| ; coarsely e.g. | ||
| ; oyster mushrooms | ||
| ; (7oz) | ||
| ½ | Fresh red chilli; de-seeded and | |
| ; chopped or a pinch | ||
| ; of chilli powder | ||
| 1 | litre | Water or vegetable stock; (13/4 pints) |
| 2 | tablespoons | Chopped fresh parsley |
| 50 | grams | Fresh spinach or other greens; chopped finely, up |
| ; to 75 (2-3oz) | ||
| 4 | Eggs; up to 5 | |
| 4 | smalls | Slic stale bread; toasted e.g. Pane |
| ; Basso or pugliese, | ||
| ; up to 5 | ||
| Salt and pepper | ||
| 4 | tablespoons | Olive oil or freshly grated parmesan; to serve, up to 5 |
| ; cheese | ||
Directions
1. Heat the oil in a saucepan, add the onion, garlic and celery and fry for 5-10 minutes or until soft.
2. Add the mushrooms and chilli or chilli powder and continue to fry for a further 5 minutes or until they are soft.
3. Add the water or stock, parsley and spinach or greens, and season with salt.
4. Cover and simmer for about 30 minutes.
5. Break the eggs into the soup, being careful to keep them apart. Continue cooking gently for 3-4 minutes or until the eggs are cooked.
6. Put a slice of toasted bread in the bottom of four or five individual soup bowls and ladle over the soup, adding an egg to each bowl.
7. Top with a swirl of olive oil or a sprinkling of grated parmesan, and plenty of freshly ground black pepper.
Converted by MC_Buster.
NOTES : This traditional soup comes from the Maremma, an area of Tuscany notorious in the past for pasture, swamps and mosquitoes.
Converted by MM_Buster v2.0l.