As the weather gets cooler over here, my mind has turned to soup. Autumn to me is all about seasonal zuppe filled with all the vegetables you can wrangle up from your courtyard garden… or the supermarket, I’m not fussed

Okay, so maybe I have another motive for thinking about soup so early in the season.

I’m sick. I don’t know how someone can get sick when it’s still sunny and warm, but if anyone can, it’s me. I have the sort of luck that brings on global recessions. I’d make one hell of a weapon of mass destruction.

Anyway, in between sniffles my mind invariably turned to acquacotta. A beautifully comforting vegetable soup with all the trimmings: gooey pecorino cheese, an egg and bread…softened with the juices of all the vegetables.

Acquacotta also holds a special place in my heart because it is the signature dish of the small Tuscan called Manciano or to me, home.

It was the first dish my host family made me all those years ago. I remember I was not particularly impressed when I saw it. I was young and the idea of a vegetable soup made me cringe.

But I tried it to be polite and fell instantly in love. Iit was quite simply the most beautiful soup I had ever eaten. Each seemed to embody the earthy rustic charm of the Tuscan countryside.

That’s not such a surprise though. Acquacotta literally translates as “cooked water” and the soup was a staple for the area’s generations of farmers.

Acquacotta has fallen a little bit of out of favour in modern Italian cooking, but if you are looking for something hearty and traditional. Something that smacks of the countryside and is packed with flavour, you really can’t go past it. Especially if you have the flu like me…

Here’s the recipe I always use. It’s from an old Italian cookbook my mother-in-law gave me. I’ve translated it.

Acquacotta for 4

Paolo Piazzesi

Ingredients:

• 2 red onions
• 5 ripe tomatoes
• 1 cabbage
• 1 carrot
• 1 stick of celery
• 4 eggs
• 4 slices of crusty bread
• Pecorino cheese (to serve)
• Olive oil

Clean and slice vegetables into bite size pieces. Heat 4 tablespoons of oil in a casserole dish. Add the vegetables and fry on medium-high heat for ten minutes. Add the tomatoes, deseeded and sliced into wedges, a litre of water and a pinch of salt. Boil for 20 minutes or until the vegetables are soft.

Fill another pan with a shallow layer of water. Bring to the boil with a pinch of salt. When boiling lower the heat to a gentle simmer. Break eggs into a bowl and slide them one at a time into the pan of water. Cook for 3-4 mins or until the white of the egg is set and opaque. Remove from the pan with a slotted spoon .

To serve:
Place a slice of toasted bread and the bottom of each bowl. Put the poached egg on top and pour the vegetable stew over it. Grate over a generous amount of pecorino cheese and enjoy. Buon Appetito.