Sopa coada, the Treviso recipe: stewed pigeons, toasted bread and Grana in layers, slow-baked in the oven in stock. Serves 6, in about 5 hours.
Introduction
Sopa coada is the oldest and most patient dish in the cooking of Treviso. It is made with pigeons stewed and taken off the bone, with toasted stale bread and with Grana, arranged in layers in an earthenware dish and moistened with meat stock. Then the dish goes into a low oven for hours, and there the thing that gives the dish its name happens: the soup «broods», the bread drinks up the stock and the pigeon's cooking juices, and in the end you get a soft pie that is cut into slices.
It is not a difficult dish, but it wants time, and time is the recipe. The pigeon must first be cooked slowly and taken off the bone patiently, the bread must be well toasted so that it holds up to hours of stock without falling apart, and the oven must stay low from start to finish. Our version follows the most widespread one in the Marca Trevigiana, with the bread toasted in butter and a last layer of Grana that turns into a golden crust in the oven.
To brown the pigeons, together with the butter, we use the Veneto del Grappa extra virgin olive oil by Oro de Pòe, mild and fresh, from olives picked by hand at the foot of Monte Grappa. In the glass we pour the Rabià «creta» by Italo Cescon, a Raboso del Piave matured in amphora and in barrique, with the acidity needed for the butter and the Grana; those looking for an easier red will find in the Merlot by Italo Cescon a soft wine from the same river.
The Story of Sopa Coada
The name comes from the Veneto dialect: coada means «brooded», from coar, to brood. It is the word that describes the cooking, long and over a low heat, like a hen brooding her eggs: the soup stays for hours in the oven, or once at the edge of the hearth, until bread, meat and stock become one thing. That is why sopa coada is not made in a hurry, and cannot be.
It is a dish born in the Treviso countryside, where pigeons were raised in the colombare, the little towers still seen beside many farmhouses in the Veneto, and where stale bread was never thrown away. With a few ingredients from the house you got a rich dish, for Sundays and feast days, that fed many people. From farmhouse kitchens it passed to those of the Treviso trattorias, which kept it alive when it was being made less and less at home, and today it is one of the signature dishes of the city.
Ingredients
For the pigeons
- cleaned pigeons1,2 kg
- butter30 g
- Extra Virgin Olive Oil Veneto del Grappa 250 ml2 tablespoons
- onion1
- carrot1
- celery stalk1
- dry white wine150 ml
- rosemary, sage and bay leafto taste
- salt and pepperto taste
For the sopa
- stale country bread400 g
- butter for toasting40 g
- grated Grana Padano150 g
- meat stock1,5 litres
Nutritional Values per Serving
Values calculated from the recipe's ingredients using the CREA food composition tables, and from the labels of our products where available. They are an estimate per serving, not a laboratory analysis.
Equipment Needed
- Large casserole with a lid
- Deep ovenproof dish in earthenware or enamelled cast iron
- Colander
- Chopping board and a sharp knife for boning
- Ladle
Tip: The earthenware dish is not an affectation: it heats slowly and evenly, and holds in the moisture during the hours in the oven. A thin metal tin dries the edges too quickly and leaves the centre soggy. If you have no earthenware, an enamelled cast-iron casserole will do, as long as it is deep.
How to Make Sopa Coada — Treviso Recipe
The pigeons
Singe the pigeons over a flame, wash them and cut them in half. In a casserole heat the butter with the oil and brown the pigeons on all sides, then add the chopped onion, carrot and celery, with the rosemary, sage and bay leaf. When the soffritto has softened, pour in the white wine and let it evaporate, season with salt and pepper and add two ladles of stock. Cover and cook over a low heat for about an hour and a quarter, adding more stock if the juices dry up, until the meat comes away from the bones.
Chef's tip: The cooking juices are half the flavour of the sopa: do not let them stick and do not throw them away. If they are too fatty at the end of cooking, skim off a little with a spoon, but not all of it.
Boning
Take the pigeons out of the casserole and let them cool slightly. Take the meat off the bone carefully, removing all the bones and sinews, and cut it into small pieces. Strain the cooking juices through a colander, pressing the vegetables well, and set them aside with the meat. Meanwhile cut the bread into slices a finger thick and brown them on both sides in a pan with the butter, or in the oven.
Chef's tip: Bone the birds with clean hands and check every piece: pigeon bones are small and thin, and a forgotten splinter ruins the slice of whoever finds it. The bread must be well toasted, almost crisp, or it falls apart in the oven.
The layers
Heat the oven to 150 °C. Pour a ladle of stock into the bottom of the dish and lay down a layer of bread slices. Cover it with some of the pigeon meat, a few spoonfuls of cooking juices and a generous handful of Grana. Continue in layers until the ingredients are used up, finishing with bread and Grana. Moisten with the hot stock, pouring it slowly in from the edges, until it comes just below the top layer.
Chef's tip: Add the stock a little at a time and let it be absorbed: the bread must be soaked, not submerged. If you overdo it, the sopa stays a soup instead of becoming a pie.
The brooding
Cover the dish and bake it at 150 °C for two and a half hours. Check it now and then and add a ladle of hot stock if the surface dries out too much. For the last half hour remove the lid and let the Grana on top form a golden crust. Take it out of the oven, let it rest for ten minutes and serve it in slices in soup plates, with a ladle of hot stock on the side.
Chef's tip: Sopa coada is even better the next day. Reheat it in a low oven, covered, with a ladle of stock: the bread softens again without losing its shape.
Wine to Pair with Sopa Coada
Sopa coada is a soup in name only. After hours in a slow oven the bread, the stock, the pigeon meat and the Grana become a soft, compact pie, which is cut into slices and served with a ladle of hot stock. Three things reach the mouth at once: the dark, faintly gamey flavour of the pigeon, the fat of the butter in which bread and meat were browned, and the savouriness of the aged cheese, which forms a golden crust as it cooks. So from the wine we ask for acidity, to cut through the butter and the Grana with every sip, and a structure that is a match for the meat. Tannin holds no fear here: the sopa is dense and rich in protein, almost dry, and a full-bodied red finds something to grip instead of turning bitter as it would on a light broth. In the Marca Trevigiana the home answer has always been the red of the Piave. We suggest two routes: a serious Raboso for the Sunday table, or a softer, easier Merlot from the Piave.
The Red We Recommend
TesiRare Rabià Raboso del Piave 'creta' Biologico — Italo Cescon — The **Rabià «creta» by Italo Cescon** is a pure Raboso del Piave, from organic farming, picked by hand in the first ten days of November. It macerates cold for six days in amphora, ferments with indigenous yeasts on its skins and stays in amphora for 330 days; then it matures for 24 months in new barriques, twice over, and is bottled without filtration. Of the 2018 vintage only 6.000 numbered bottles were made. On sopa coada it works with the weapon that made Raboso famous: high acidity, which with every sip cuts through the butter of the bread and the Grana of the crust and leaves the mouth ready for the next forkful. The tannin, softened by the amphora and the wood, finds in the pigeon meat and the cheese the proteins to cling to, and the wine's dark fruit sits alongside the gamey flavour of the meat without covering it. It is also a pairing from home: Raboso and sopa coada come from the same plain, between the Piave and Treviso. The limit has to be said: it is a wine of great structure and a serious price, and after two years of new barrique the wood can seem too much on a sopa made with little cheese; it gives its best with the rich version, with the golden crust. Open it an hour ahead and serve it at 18 °C, in a large balloon glass.
Want to know more about the grape? our guide to Raboso del Piave
The Softer Alternative
Merlot Veneto I.G.T. — Italo Cescon — Those who want to stay on the Piave with a simpler wine will find the second route in the **Merlot by Italo Cescon**. It comes from the alluvial vineyards of Vallonto and Fagarè, in the province of Treviso, and ages for nine months in oak casks and four in bottle. Here the work is done by softness more than acidity: the tannin is gentle and the cherry and currant fruit, with a touch of liquorice, goes with the pigeon meat and the sweetness of the bread toasted in butter, while a pleasant freshness is enough to clean the mouth of the Grana. It is the red you uncork with the family without thinking twice. The limit is the opposite of the Rabià's: it has less acidity and less body, so on a sopa very rich in butter and cheese it cuts the fat less and in the long run gets overwhelmed. Serve it at 16-18 °C, in a wide glass.
Want to explore the grape variety? our guide to Merlot from the Veneto
Craft Beer as an Alternative
Reckless Bock Beer — Norah's Farm — Sopa coada is a dish of toasted bread and golden crust, and a malt-driven beer speaks the same language. The **Reckless Bock by Norah's Farm** is a bottom-fermented double malt in the Dunkel Bock style, deep copper in colour, with notes of caramel and dried fruit and a light bitterness that supports the malt. The caramel leans on the most toasted parts of the bread and on the Grana crust, and the carbonation with its creamy head carries the film of butter off the palate. The full body stands up to the flavour of the pigeon, where a light blonde beer would disappear. The limit is the sweetness: the finish is soft and a little sweet, so it cuts the fat less than an acidic wine, and the 7% vol makes itself felt on a hot dish. Serve it at 8-10 °C.
Want to know more about the style? dark and double malt beers
Variations
- With chicken or guinea fowl: where pigeons are hard to find, many families use free-range chicken or guinea fowl. The method is the same, but the flavour is more delicate and less gamey, and the meat needs to cook a little longer.
- With the giblets: in the richest version the pigeons' livers and hearts, browned and finely chopped, are added to the cooking juices. They give more depth to the flavour and make the sopa darker and more intense.
- Without butter on the bread: some toast the bread dry in the oven instead of browning it in butter. The sopa comes out lighter and the flavour of the pigeon stays cleaner, but the crust on top turns out less golden.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does sopa coada mean?
In the Veneto dialect it means «brooded soup». The name comes from the cooking: the soup stays a long time in a low oven, like a hen brooding her eggs, until bread, stock and meat become a compact pie.
Where can you find pigeons?
You find them at the butcher's and at poulterers, almost always to order, and in some shops already cleaned and ready to cook. Ask for young, farm-raised pigeons: the meat is more tender and cooks in more predictable times.
Can it be made in advance?
Yes, and it is the best way. You can cook the whole thing the day before, let it cool and reheat it in a low oven, covered, with a ladle of stock. Or you can just cook and bone the pigeons the day before, keeping the meat in the fridge in its cooking juices.
Is sopa coada a soup or a dry dish?
It sits in between. By the end of cooking the bread has absorbed almost all the stock and the sopa is cut into slices, like a soft pie. It is served in soup plates, and those who prefer it brothier add a ladle of hot stock at the table.
Which bread should you use?
A country loaf at least two days old, with a dense crumb, such as a round loaf or a ciabatta made from soft wheat flour. Sandwich bread or bread that is too soft will not do: it falls apart in the oven and the sopa loses its layered structure.
