Santo Stefano di Sessanio lentil soup

Santo Stefano di Sessanio lentils, a Slow Food Presidium, are small, dark and tasty: they keep their shape when cooked and need no soaking. With a few ingredients they become a thick, fragrant soup.

Traditionally they are served on toasted country bread rubbed with garlic, with a drizzle of raw extra virgin olive oil. Some families add sagne pasta or a piece of pork rind.

• 300 g Santo Stefano di Sessanio lentils
• 1 celery stick
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 tablespoon tomato purée or 3–4 cherry tomatoes
• 1 bay leaf
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Salt and chilli
• 4 slices of country bread

1. Rinse the lentils and drain them, removing any impurities.
2. In a pot warm the oil with the crushed garlic and chopped celery; add the tomato and let it cook for two minutes.
3. Add the lentils and bay leaf and cover with about a litre and a half of hot water.
4. Simmer, lid ajar, for 30–40 minutes until tender; add hot water if needed.
5. Add salt at the end and adjust the chilli.
6. Toast the bread, rub it with garlic, place it in the bowls and pour the soup over it.
7. Finish with a drizzle of raw olive oil.

• For a creamier soup, blend a ladle of lentils and stir it back in.
• Salt only at the end: the skins stay more tender.
• It is even better the next day: loosen it with a little hot water.

We do not have photos of this dish yet: the image is an illustration made for this page.

Lentil growing around Santo Stefano di Sessanio is recorded in monastic documents as early as 998: for centuries, together with sheep farming, lentils were a source of wealth for the villages of the Baronia.

Soup on bread is the oldest way of eating them: a one-dish meal that fed families through the long mountain winters.