A Long and Messy Business. Rowley Leigh

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СКАЧАТЬ minutes. Season the soup well with sea salt and some

      freshly ground black pepper if required. The soup should

      be pretty thick: theoretically, you should be able to stand

      a spoon in it.

      Serve the soup in bowls with a little fine olive oil

      poured on top and plenty of cheese to share. I like to serve

      it with bruschetta, but it is by no means compulsory.

      WINE: It is said that no wine, barring a little sherry, should

      accompany soup; however, this is no ordinary soup but

      almost a thick vegetable stew. That said, I can think of no

      wine that will not sit happily alongside. Let us plump for

      a Chianti, not too intense and two or three years old.

      80

      Cooking Stripped of Artifice

      Acquacotta

      I love shopping, cooking and eating with my friend

      Filippo. He is a quietly spoken sort of chap whose

      utterings, in a noisy household, are taken as absolute

      wisdom. He is the most undemonstrative of Italians,

      incapable of raising his voice or even waving his hands

      in the air, yet it is not difficult to sense his pleasure or

      displeasure. Despite my lack of Italian and his occasionally

      faltering English, we get along very well. In the macelleria

      he will distract the butcher with talk of local politics

      while I scrutinise the meat. He will nod approvingly

      when I instruct the butcher to cut us some ridiculously

      extravagant veal chops, and purr with pleasure as we are

      offered some titbit of lardo di Colonnata or salami to taste.

      His tastes in food are both sophisticated and simple.

      The last time I visited we debated the merits of three

      different Pecorinos, because he has a passion for cheese.

      Although not a native Roman, he adores – as do I – the

      cuisine of his adopted city, whether it is the salty crunch

      of a deep-fried artichoke, the bite of spaghetti cacio e pepe

      or the vinegary rasp of puntarella dressed with anchovies.

      However, Filippo’s life has taken a different turn. He

      and his wife have built themselves a house up in the hills

      of the Maremma and they drive up there almost every

      weekend. We have had to extend our gastronomic

      horizons. Although only just in Tuscany, the cuisine is

      markedly different and more soft-edged than that of the

      city. There is more bread, beans, steak, tomatoes and

      prosciutto, and a lot more chicken liver crostini. Luckily,

      the Pecorino Toscana passes muster. Yet Filippo and I

      have now developed an obsession for a dish I had never

      even heard of before, let alone tasted.

      The beauty of acquacotta, as my friend sees it, is that it

      is always different. One day it will be celery and tomatoes,

      the next it will be cabbage and peas. A good cook will

      make an acquacotta for every day of the year and never

      repeat themselves. The translation of ‘cooked water’ is not

      so far from the truth. There can certainly be no addition

      of a stock, and only three or four vegetables at most. It

      is a very simple dish and therein lies its appeal to me: it is

      cooking stripped of artifice, and a careful hand is required

      if it is not going to become rather ordinary.

      81

      March

      ACQUACOTTA

      As my preamble suggests, this is not so much a definitive

      recipe as an example of aquacotta.

      Serves four.

      Place the celery in a heavy, flameproof casserole dish with

      the olive oil and cook gently for 5 minutes before adding

      the spring onions. Cook these for 5 minutes in turn before

      adding the cabbage. After a further 5 minutes, add the

      tomatoes and peas. Season with the sugar, in addition to

      salt and freshly ground black pepper. Add enough water

      to just cover the vegetables and simmer gently for

      10 minutes.

      When the vegetables are tender – but still firm, rather

      than stewed – poach the eggs by slipping them one by

      one into a saucepan of simmering water (laced with a

      little vinegar, unless the eggs are freshly laid).

      Place the toasts into soup plates and lift the eggs out

      onto the toasts. Ladle the stew – it should not be wet

      enough to call a soup – around the egg and take to the

      table. Serve with grated Parmesan, if liked.

      1 celery heart, quartered

      lengthways

      3 tablespoons olive oil

      6 spring onions, trimmed

      1 small head of spring

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