Tuscan Tomato Stew - Pappa al Pomodoro

Working with fresh tomatoes, make a small X in both sides of each tomato.  Bring medium-size pot of water to boil, and add marked tomatoes into pot.

Allow to cook for no longer than 1 minute - be sure tomatoes are not cooking, you just need to soften the skin. Remove promptly from water, and allow to cool in a bowl of cold or ice water.  

When tomatoes have cooled enough to handle, remove peel, cut in half and using small spoon, remove inner seeds (as many as possible).  Coarsely chop, set aside. 

In heavy-bottomed soup pot, coat bottom of pot with generous amount of extra-virgin olive oil, add garlic and half of basil leaves. Allow to cook gently, and when garlic is lightly golden brown and aromatic, add diced fresh tomatoes.  Adjust to taste with salt and add 1 cup water.  

Cover soup pot, turn heat as low as possible, and allow to cook at least one hour.

Remove soup pot from heat (mixture should be still fairly liquid at this point). Break up pieces of bread into fairly small pieces, and add to tomato mixture. Stir in olive oil, and the rest of the fresh basil.  Allow to rest a few minutes.

From time to time, stir mixture with a whisk to combine ingredients, and break up the bread.

Place servings into individual serving bowls, and garnish with a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil and a fresh basil leaf placed in the center.

A note about bread:  we recommend using a stale, rustic-style or country-style bread. You don't need it to be totally dry, but if that's all you have handy, feel free to use that as well.  If it's too hard to break up into pieces, try putting it into a plastic bag and compressing slightly with a heavy rolling pin.