A Piemontese Meatless Onion Soup Recipe - Zuppa Magra di Cipolle

This meatless onion soup recipe is drawn from a volume entitled Il Cuoco Piemontese, which was published in 1766, and was one of the first books written in Italian to present French recipes. Given the renown of onion soup in France and its comparative rareness in Italy, the recipe may be of French origin. Like most 18th century recipes, it leaves the proportions up to you. You'll want day old bread, and want to add enough to thicken the soup but not so much as to make it really firm. Having said this, the instructions:

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 45 minutes

Ingredients:

• A dozen medium-sized onions
• Unsalted Butter
• Water or Broth
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Sliced bread
• Milk (optional)

Preparation:

Finely slice a dozen medium-sized onions and put them in a pot with a chunk of unsalted butter. Keep them over a very low flame for an hour and a half, turning them every now and again, and when they are cooked and golden, add water, or broth if you have it, to cover, season with salt and freshly cracked pepper, and bring all to a barest boil; add sliced bread to thicken and simmer a little further to make the zuppa.

If you want to make an onion soup with milk, use somewhat fewer onions, and cook them over the fire with unsalted butter until they are done but not browned. Next, bring some milk to a boil, stir it into the onions, and season them with salt. Slice your bread, lay it in a tureen, add some broth and the onions, more broth to cover, and warm the tureen for a few minutes as the flavors meld. Serve.

Yield: 8-10 servings meatless onion soup.

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