- Food & Wine
Zuppa Pavese Recipe
The pavese soup, taste of old dishes, those that were born from the few ingredients available
Let's talk about the Zuppa Pavese recipe. Not everybody knows that it actually the result of a famous battle. Anyone can tell you that battles breed nothing but death and savagery, yet they also mark both territories and historical periods, changing the course of history and the destiny of nations.
Saying that a culinary concoction was born out of it would be a tad strange.
Yet it seems that is what happened in Pavia. It was the year 1525 AD and two vast armies, one belonging to Francis I of France and the Spanish and German imperial troops of Charles V.
It was the era of the Great Italian Wars, a series of bloody struggles when the continent's greater powers wrestled for their supremacy over the peninsula during the turmoil of Protestant Reformation.
The French were literally wiped out and their ruler was captured and held prisioner in a nearby farmhouse in Lombardy.
There, a peasant woman served him a frugal meal: broth with stale bread, butter, grated cheese and a fresh egg in the middle.
That is the origin of the Zuppa Pavese, the sovereign liked it so much that, once released, he ordered his own court kitchen to recreate this recipe.
Lombardy surprised this monarch with the Zuppa Pavese recipe, we are sure that you will appreciate it as well.
