Bread Tomato Garlic

Serves four

Bread Tomato Garlic A soup that's really a salad: sourdough bread, rich, ripe tomatoes and your fruitiest olive oil.

Main players:
12 ounces stale sourdough bread
1 pound ripe tomatoes
2 garlic cloves, peeled

Supporting cast:
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil plus extra to serve
5 cups chicken stock
1 small bunch basil
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Remove crusts from the bread, thickly slice and cut into 3/4 inch cubes. Coarsely chop the tomatoes, and smash the garlic with the side of a knife until flattened. Heat the olive oil and garlic in a heavy saucepan. When hot, add the tomatoes and cook, stirring, for 5 minutes.

Add the chicken stock gradually, stirring, and bring to a boil. When the mixture is bubbling, add the stale bread cubes, salt and pepper, and cook, stirring, for another 5 minutes. Toss in a handful of fresh basil leaves and stir them through.

Cover and simmer over very low heat for 20-30 minutes. Stir every new and then, squashing some of the bread into the soup with a potato masher or the back of a wooden spoon.

Remove from the heat and leave to cool for a while. Serve just warm, drizzled with extra olive oil.

Bread, Tomato, Garlic
Quick Cooking with 3 Main Ingredients
By Jill Dupleix
Soma Books, 1999
Paperback, $27.00
Photography by Geoff Lung
160 pages, color
ISBN: 1-57959-022-5
Recipe Reprinted by permission.