It is fitting that on a most divine jot of the Tyrrhenian coast, on a promontory between the limpid gulfs of Sant’ Eufemia and Goia Tauro, there would glint the small, golden precinct of Tropea. Fitting, too, that there in its rich, black fields would be raised up Italy’s sweetest onions, and that they be long and oval like great lavender pearls. One peels them and sets to, with knife and fork, a dish of sea salt, a pepper grinder, and a tiny jug of beautiful oil, a perfect lunch with bread and wine. Too, we saw the folk of Tropea simply fold back their papery skins and eat them raw, out of hand, layer by layer, like a magical violet fruit. Sometimes, one finds them all softened, smoothed into a delectable potion made of garlic and bay leaves and white wine. Evident in its resemblances to French cousins, the soup of Tropea, though, is a minestra strepitosa—a magnificent soup—say the Calabrian cooks, belittling the goodness of the French soup. Here follows a version that softens the garlic, caramelizing it into sweetness with the slow cooking of the onions, before the illumination of the soup with red wine and grappa and the finishing of it with pecorino and a heavy dusting of fresh pepper.
Recipe information
Yield
serves 8
Ingredients
Preparation
Step 1
In a large, wide terra-cotta or enameled cast-iron casserole over a medium flame, warm 3 tablespoons of olive oil and sauté the salt pork, crusting it well, then removing it with a slotted spoon to a holding plate. Add the onions and the garlic, tossing them about in the fat until the onions are translucent. Lower the flame a bit and sprinkle on the sea salt and brown sugar, cooking the onions and garlic for 1/2 hour, stirring them often, until they have caramelized a bit and taken on a soft, golden color. Add the bay leaf, the white wine, and the stock, bringing the liquid to a simmer, cooking the soup for 20 minutes before adding the red wine and the grappa and simmering it gently for 5 minutes more.
Step 2
Preheat the oven broiler. Lay the slices of bread over the hot soup, dust the bread thickly with pecorino, and drop thin threads of olive oil over the whole. Generously grind pepper over the casserole and place it under the broiler to toast the bread and brown the cheese.
Step 3
Carry the soup, golden and sputtering, to the table, ladling it into warmed, deep soup plates. Pass a bottle of grappa should anyone desire additional benediction.
