April 29 - Zuppa Arcidossana

I'll just admit it up front: I did not want to make this dish. Watery soup at the beginning of summer didn't hold much appeal for me. But after seeing the trailer for Julie & Julia at the theater this weekend (can't wait to see it!), the husband said "I'm sure there were things in Julia's cookbook that Julie didn't want to make, but she did, right?" I couldn't argue with that -- Julie made the aspic...many times over. And I didn't think Zuppa Arcidossana would be anywhere near as bad as aspic, so I sucked it up and made this for dinner last night.

The ingredients were easy:

2 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 pound sweet Italian sausage, removed from casings
1 cup 1/2-inch-diced carrots
1 large onion, chopped
3 or 4 cloves garlic, chopped
Salt and black pepper
1 cup stale bread (use coarse, country-style bread), cut in 1/2-inch cubes
1/2 pound spinach, trimmed, washed and roughly chopped
1/4 to 1/2 cup ricotta salata, cut in 1/2-inch cubes (feta may be substituted)
1/4 cup freshly chopped parsley, optional

I made two modifications. Harris Teeter had only 1/2 pound blocks of ricotta salata, but they had smaller blocks of feta, so I got that. (Sorry Teeter, but you’re no Whole Foods. I don’t think you can really call it a full service gourmet cheese section if you won’t cut the prepackaged cheese into smaller chunks.) And I did not pre-plan to have some stale bread, so I just got regular bread and popped the chunks into the broiler for a few minutes while I got on with the cooking.

1. Put oil in a large pot or deep skillet and brown sausage over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally. When sausage is cooked through and leaving brown bits in pan, add carrots, onion and garlic, and continue to cook until vegetables begin to soften and brown, about 10 minutes. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Very simple. I used my handy cast iron skillet and got some nice “brown bits.”

2. Add bread to pan and stir for a minute or 2; add spinach and continue cooking just until it wilts, a couple of minutes.

Self explanatory, although I only stirred the bread for about 60 seconds. I figured that staling-by-broiler was the equivalent to 1 minute of pan browning.

3. Add about 2 cups water and stir to loosen any remaining brown bits from pan. This is more of a stew than a soup, but there should be some broth, so add another cup of water if necessary. When broth is consistency of thin gravy, ladle stew into serving bowls and top with cheese and some freshly chopped parsley if you have it. Serve immediately.

I never got a thin “gravy” – just more of a slightly discolored water in the bottom of the pan. But good smells were coming from the pan and the colors were bright and fresh, so I was cautiously optimistic. I skipped the fresh parsley, thinking there was already enough color in the dish. Here’s the final product:



I'll close with another admission: I was pleasantly surprised by this dish. I was right about not finding much appealing in the watery soup part, but the textures and flavors of the non-watery parts were really good. Bittman is right that this is a combo that only a Tuscan could create. If I make it again, I'd make some modifications (use less liquid and/or use a wine or stock instead of plain water), but overall, it was much better than I expected. That’ll teach me to be a doubter...but please don't give me an aspic assignment next week.