Legend has it that one night the particularly hungry king of France Louis XV went to the kitchen and put together the first ingredients he found at hand: butter, onions and champagne. Thus was born the onion soup, a cult dish of French cuisine, yet profoundly widespread also throughout our country, where it thrives on infinite regional versions that differ from the typical soup à l'oignon.
Each family has its own recipe for onion soup, a very popular dish also in Campania, although there is no real official version of the Neapolitan-style onion soup. After all, Naples is the homeland of another dish that sees the onions as protagonists, or pasta alla Genovese.
The identity of the Neapolitan onion soup is to be found above all in the use of local ingredients, such as Copper Onion of Montoro, produced between the provinces of Avellino and Salerno. A variety with a sweet and aromatic taste, rich in precious organoleptic properties and suitable for any type of preparation, from raw consumption to soups and broths.
Neapolitan-style onion soup
Preparing the Neapolitan-style onion soup is very easy: if you feel like it, just do it like King Louis XV and look in the pantry for those few and simple ingredients you need. It is also a great method for recycle stale bread, which will absorb all the flavor of the soup and become soft and tasty.
Of course, in every home there are different tastes and preferences: this is why it is a recipe that everyone can modify in their own way. Let's start from the base!
Ingredients for 4 people
500 ml vegetable broth
350 g Montoro coppery onions
5-6 cherry tomatoes (preferably Piennolo)
stale bread
Grated Parmesan cheese
extra virgin olive oil
dry white wine
pepper
salt
Method
Prepare a classic vegetable broth.
Cut the onions in half and slice them thinly. In a saucepan, heat a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, add the onions and brown them for a few minutes, until they are wilted. Add a little wine and let it evaporate.
Add most of the hot broth, the cherry tomatoes and season with salt and pepper. Simmer for about 30 minutes, until the broth reduces and obtain a thicker consistency. Gradually add more broth if necessary.
Arrange the slices of stale bread on a deep plate, sprinkle with a drizzle of oil. Pour in the hot soup and season to taste with pepper, grated cheese and a little more oil.
Variants
Usually, to enrich the Neapolitan onion soup, the egg: just break them in the last minutes of cooking directly into the boiling soup, cooking them as if they were poached.
As a condiment you can also use other types of stringy cheeses and perfume the soup with aromatic herbs to taste.
Another very common custom is to sauté the jowls. The result will be even tastier and more inviting!
