Pappa al pomodoro, a rustic tomato bread soup, is one of the many dishes from the days when everything had to be used. There is an old Italian saying: “cucina buona in tempi brutti”—good food in hard times. Since tomatoes first came to Europe, many variants of this dish have evolved as part of the repertoires of the cucina povera, literally the “poor kitchen.”
Dishes that come from this tradition can be found all over the world. People had to make do with whatever could be found, and use up items such as old bread. In hard times—such as wartime or a deep recession in the United States—such meals become a lifesaver.
