I had zuppa pavese while on a motocross trip around Lombardy with my father. On the route we were doing often, we found this trattoria. In the menu they had two zuppa pavese, the first one was the traditional version, while the second was a special they were making with their own tomatoes. My father looked at me and said: let's do one of each. We were excited to find out which one was the best. Even if the difference was just tomatoes, or was it?
There is a famous version of this soup, and then there is this one. The famous version has a story everyone knows: a king captured in battle, a frightened peasant woman, a wooden bowl with bread and egg and broth poured over. That version has been retold for five hundred years. It has a brotherhood with a written charter, official regional recognition and it appears on menus in Asia and America. The rossa has none of that. It was made in home kitchens in Pavia for just as long, and nobody thought it needed protecting because nobody outside those kitchens knew it existed.
There is always a thin line between what is traditional and what is not. And this is the question this dish carries with it. I can imagine an old grandmother making this soup for her husband coming home from a long day in the field. What they have is stale bread, broth, and an egg from the few chickens they keep. But they also saved some tomatoes from the garden, and the idea is to marry those ingredients. Would that act make this wonderful dish less traditional, or just give it a new identity that is simply adapting to the time it's living in?
Zuppa Pavese Rossa
The version that stayed in the kitchen
Full full story, complete recipe and wine pairing on Substack.
#forgottenitalianclassics #lombardy #italiansoup #cucinapovera
