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a cura di Cinzia Russino

THE CUATA SOUP (THE HIDDEN SOUP)

The most famous dish of the cuisine from Tempio is "The Zuppa Cuata". It’s name means "Hidden Soup". Through the years, many people have asked themselves where the strange name came from. I heard many stories about this legendary soup. Some said that the adjective "Cuata" came from the fact that inside the dish, on the bottom of the pot, were hidden pieces of meat, one of the most important ingredients used as condiments for the broth. This holding true the most important and the most desired part of the recipe was hidden. Another source, positively said that when the soup was just cooked it was wrapped in a blanket and kept warm to better gain flavor. The cooking teachers impatiently used to say to the untrained apprentices "hide it, hide it". Other versions say that it regards the method of cooking this dish..
Today we cook in our modern ovens, but in ancient times the cooking used to happen mainly in wood burning stoves. Not everybody could afford the luxury of wasting so much wood for a soup. While baking bread, they used to take advantage of the heat, but their daily cooking was usually done on a coal stove. The soup was made in a copper couldron or ceramic bowl, shaped like an upside cone shape, that was covered with a lid and placed into a wood burner. An abundant layer of live charcoal was placed on top of the lid, allowing the cook "focu subra and focu suttu" (fire above and fire beneath) , wrapping it in a uniform heat. Choose for yourself!

The ingredients of the ancient Suppa Cuata of Tempio are difficult to find outside the area and substituting any of the ingredients changes the taste dramatically. The meat of a young goat for the broth is almost impossible to find for most of the year. On the other hand, the bread, "Crown of Red Wreath", also called "corona di tricu ruju", which is essential for the best results of the dish, is produced daily in all the bakeries of Tempio but is often confused with other types of bread that have a similar shape but a clearly different taste. There are two types of cheeses that are normally used: one is fresh and the other is seasoned. The fresh cheese, strictly made of cow’s milk, should have the consistency of stretching dough. It should be a cheese similar to "the buttoni di casciu" or "Lu cascio spiattatu", which is sliced in solid pieces and alternated between layers of bread. Some people prefer to use "The Pischedda”, fresh unsalted cow’s milk cheese, left to sour at room temperature, covered with a moist cloth to stop the formation of a crust, or placed in a ceramic bowl and left to ferment in its own whey. This cheese, if fermented correctly, in contact with heat melts into a cream, giving the dish an exceptional "gusto", flavor, and consistency. A long time ago the use of one or the other of the cheeses was related to what was available or the economic conditions of the family.
The seasoned cheese was usually made of sheep's milk (often the crust was grated because the heart of the cheese was eaten with more pleasure with bread and a glass of good wine) or of cow’s milk. This last one called "Casgiu ruzzu" is a very distant relative (poor) of parmesan cheese, hard, grainy, and not too appreciated to the point that producers themselves called it coarse. Today you can find all these types of cheeses in any supermarket.

Making soups of old hard bread is not only characteristic of the city of Tempio. The entire bread making world has its own soup to recycle the leftovers, ennobled with the ingredients what nature and the local economy had to offer. But often the "suppa cuata" is confused with many bread soups made in other parts of Sardinia. The differences are, first of all, the type of bread used (flat bread, leveled bread, carasau), the type of cheese (mostly sheep's milk cheese, fresh or seasoned), and often had the addition of vegetable ingredients (wild fennel or cabbage, previously cooked in the beef broth).
All excellent soups but different from the dish of Tempio in taste and in appearance.

In the tradition of Tempio, "La Suppa Cuata" is presented in two versions: one simple and the other one seasoned with oily condensed Ragu of young goat’s meat and ram’s meat. This second version, because more rich, was reserved for holidays and weddings. What can we say? It is difficult to choose between the two.

SUPPA CUATA
Ingredienti
Quantity for six people

For the broth: bones and pieces of young goat or ram, one carrot, one onion, three pieces of celery, a tuft of parsley, two tablespoon of tomato paste, and salt.

For the soup: an old crown of hard wheat bread, 1 1/3 lb of fresh melting cheese, almost 1 lbs of grated seasoned cheese, a mixture of minced parsley, a leveled teaspoon of cinnamon

Directions
In advance prepare the broth. Place all ingredients in a pot containing cold water. Let simmer on low heat for a few hours, until the meat is tender. Turn off the heat and let it set. Cut the hard bread into 1/2 inch slices. If the bread is still moist toast it lightly on the oven grill. Slice fresh cheese into 1/4 inch pieces and set them aside. In a bowl place the grated sheep milk cheese, add the minced parsley and the cinnamon. Mix all the ingredients using your hands, avoiding the formation of lumps.
Use a ceramic baking dish from 4 to 6 inches deep and 10 inches in diameter. Now start placing the bread on the bottom alternating slices of fresh cheese with a handful of grated sheep's milk cheese. When you are almost to the top, place the all of the remaining bread. Pour the hot broth on the soup allowing the bread to be saturated by broth. Stop only when you see the broth appear on the top layer of bread. At this point add the last layer of cheese and sprinkle abundantly with grated cheese. Bake in a preheated oven at 425 and let it cook until you see the top of the dish rise and turn golden brown. Serve warm.

Suggestions
For anyone in a hurry: prepare the ingredients in the ceramic dish the day before. Only at the last moment pour on the hot broth and bake.

For the Vegetarians
I know very well that it is not the same thing but, if the other ingredients, from the basic recipe, stay the same, using a good condensed vegetarian broth it is possible to obtain a savory dish. It is better than nothing!!