Acquacotta, Tuscan Vegetable Soup
Acquacotta comes from the Maremma, the old marshland of southern Tuscany, and its name, cooked water, tells you everything about where it started: a shepherd's or charcoal-burner's soup made from water, an onion, whatever vegetables were to hand, and a heel of stale bread to fill it out. A poached egg often goes on top and bread underneath, and this version leaves both out, the way the site treats other dishes built around eggs or bread, leaning instead on white beans for the body and the belly-filling job those did. What makes it worth cooking is not the ingredient list but the method: a long, gentle sweat of the aromatics and an unhurried simmer that coaxes depth out of almost nothing. Crush the tomatoes by hand, use the chard stems as well as the leaves, and finish with acid instead of salt. It is a weeknight pot of soup that costs very little and tastes like it took all day.
Ingredients
- 1 large Yellow onions, sliced thin
- 2 ribs Celery, sliced
- 1 whole Carrots, diced
- 3 cloves Garlic, sliced
- 2 cups Canned whole peeled tomatoes, hand-crushed
- 1 bunch Swiss chard, stems diced, leaves torn
- 1 1/2 cups Cannellini beans, cooked
- 1 tsp no-salt vegetable bouillon
- 1/4 cup Basil, torn
- 1/2 tsp Black peppercorns, ground
Method
- Sweat the onion, celery, carrot, and the diced chard stems in a wide pot with 1/3 cup water (80 ml), covered, over medium-low heat until soft and sweet, about 12 minutes. Acquacotta is peasant food built from a slow-cooked base of aromatics, so this is not a step to rush; the sweetness pulled out here is what carries a soup that has almost nothing else in it.
- Add the garlic and cook 1 minute, then add the crushed tomatoes and cook 5 minutes until they lose their raw, tinny edge and darken. Crushing whole tomatoes by hand leaves them in rough shreds that hold their shape in the broth better than pre-crushed.
- Pour in 4 cups water (950 ml) with the bouillon, bring to a simmer, and cook 10 minutes to pull the flavors together. The name means cooked water, and the point is that patient simmering turns plain water and scraps into something that tastes like far more.
- Stir in the chard leaves and the beans and simmer 5 minutes more, until the greens are tender and the beans warmed through. The beans are what make a bowl of this a meal; they also give body where the traditional poached egg and slice of stale bread would have.
- Grind in the black pepper and stir in the basil off the heat. Acquacotta is ladled over toasted bread in Tuscany; skip it and let the beans do that work, or spoon the soup over cooked farro. Finish each bowl with lemon or a splash of vinegar to lift it in place of salt.
Nutrition
Estimated per serving: 180 calories, 7 g protein, 8 g fiber, 60 mg sodium. Computed from USDA FoodData Central reference values for the main ingredients. This is an approximation, not a laboratory measurement. How these are computed.
Cost per serving is estimated from US national-average retail prices for cheap staple forms, using BLS dried-bean prices and USDA produce prices. Prices vary by store and season, so treat it as a guide, not a receipt. How this is computed.
