Tomato Soup Recipe from Bread restaurant in nyc

October 15, 2011 6:22 PM

A couple years ago I ate at a restaurant called Bread in NYC. I believe this is the restaurant. They had mindblowingly awesome tomato soup. Do you know the recipe this restaurant uses?

I remember it being a little more marinara sauce-like than other tomato soups. I just made a soup very similar to this, which is good, but not the same. Has anyone had the soup from Bread? Any ideas how it is made?

posted by mjcon to food & drink (6 answers total)

Give them a call- they will probably be happy to give you the recipe. Or, even better yet, stop by and ask to speak to either the sous chef or the executive chef.

Don't go by or call during the busy time, before they open on a sunday is a good time to try.

Unless this is a chain, most restaurants will be happy to give out their recipes.
posted by TheBones at 6:33 PM on October 15, 2011 [1 favorite]

Any hints as to how it tasted? Home made tomato soup tends to blow canned stuff out of the water. If you start making a few recipes I'm sure you'll find yourself headed in the right direction.

The "marinara"- Do you mean it was kind of sweet and a little sour? A lot of home made tomato soups get that. A little balsamic snuck in in a the end can send it to the moon
posted by GilloD at 8:57 AM on October 16, 2011

I would say the soup probably had bread in it and maybe even parmesan cheese. It is more orange than red in color (Looks like this).
posted by mjcon at 11:32 AM on October 16, 2011

Seriously, do what TheBones suggested. Everything else is likely to be a guessing game... unless by a billion-to-one* chance some ex-chef from there is a Mefite.

*Seriously, those are the odds.
posted by IAmBroom at 4:07 PM on October 16, 2011

The soup you had is called Pappa al Pomodoro. It was traditionally a soup eaten by the poor as it made use of old bread.

There are many recipes out there, but it's basically just tomatoes and bread.

Here's a recipe but I have never bothered with one -- I just mix tomatoes (usually canned), dry stale bread (ideally a relatively bland white crusty bread -- the bread traditionally used is Tuscan bread which has no salt) and olive oil, along with enough water to make it a soup and some salt, pepper, and garlic.
posted by Deathalicious at 4:41 PM on July 8, 2012

Ugh, never mind, just saw your link and that's the dish. If it wasn't right I would guess it has to do with the flavorings. They may use broth instead of water, and may load it up with spices, and possibly extra salt. The bread they use would make a difference too. I'm assuming that "Bread" means they are a bakery, and so they probably have access to just the right kinds of bread to make this soup. It really is best with Tuscan bread, so try that, broth, and try blending it (since the photo I saw, the soup is obviously blended while traditionally Pappa al Pomodoro is chunky).

How was the version you made different?
posted by Deathalicious at 4:45 PM on July 8, 2012