Seuppa de Valpelline con Fontina e Verza

Ingredients

• 4 thick slices pain de seigle (stale rye bread), torn into rough pieces
• 300 g Savoy cabbage (verza), outer leaves removed, roughly chopped
• 200 g Fontina Valle d'Aosta, cut into small cubes
• 1.2 litres beef broth, very hot, at a rolling boil when poured
• 1 pinch nutmeg, freshly grated

Method

1. 1
   Bring a pot of lightly salted water to the boil. Add the roughly chopped Savoy cabbage and blanch for 3–4 minutes. Drain and set aside. The cabbage should be just tender but not collapsed — it will yield further under the hot broth.
2. 2
   Divide the torn rye bread among four deep ovenproof bowls. Lay the blanched cabbage over the bread, then scatter the cubed Fontina evenly across the surface. Grate a pinch of nutmeg over each bowl. This is where the dish lives or dies: the bread must be genuinely stale rye — dense enough to absorb the broth without dissolving — and the Fontina must be in cubes, not grated, so that it melts into distinct golden pools rather than a uniform skin.
3. 3
   Ladle the boiling broth over each assembled bowl, pouring just enough to reach the top of the bread layer without submerging the Fontina entirely. The heat of the broth will begin to melt the cheese immediately — the surface should show the Fontina softening at the edges.
4. 4
   Place the bowls under a hot grill or broiler for 3–5 minutes, until the Fontina has melted into bubbling golden pools and the exposed bread edges show the first colour. Remove when the cheese is molten and lightly bronzed — not browned through.