The spelt soup is a very common dish during the summer and it is suitable for being consumed throughout the year. It was a very popular and almost inevitable course for peasant families.

Ingredients (4 people)
250g spelt
150g puréed tomato
40g bacon
1 onion
1 rib of celery
extra-virgin olive oil
salt

Preparation method
Trite celery and onion, combine pieces of bacon and leave to fry the lot in a saucepan. Add puréed tomato and cook on low fire, let the sauce cooking. When the sauce is ready, add spelt an leave it to season for about fifteen minutes. Pour hot water and leave it to cook for at least thirty minutes before serving it.

Note – In ancient times spelt which was used for the soup wasn’t in grains but “sfarrato” is that crushed by the stone mill which was an unfailing tool in the peasant homes.

Variation – A good alternative can be to use both lean or fat ham. In past times a wonderful and common variation was to use the bone of the ham to season the soup. Leave it to cook in the water for about half an hour. When the boiling will be ended, throw the water away. Put the bone back in the water with onion, carrot, celery and tomato, leave it to cook for about 2 or 3 hours. Filter the achieved broth and boil it, then pour the spelt. Leave it to cook for half an hour before serving it.