Photo: Jeff Fabri.

Soppa tal-Armla

Words by Adriana Bishop

This soup is a symbol of resilience and resourcefulness, and still a favourite today. Featuring whatever green and white vegetable neighbours could spare to help a widow rustle up a meal.

On 30th September, the minimum temperature in Malta dropped below 20 degrees Celsius for the first time in 118 days. This could only mean one thing: soup season had officially begun. After months of sweltering heat, we were all ready for real autumn feels, despite the fact that summer seems to go on forever on the island, sometimes even up to Christmas. And nothing says autumn more than a warming bowl of comforting goodness packed with nutritious vegetables and a chunk of history. Because, of course, every dish in Malta comes with a story and this particular soup is a testament to simpler times when meals were cooked on a stone kenur, with ingredients grown in your own garden or field, all produced by hand.

As the name implies, Widow’s Soup – Soppa tal-Armla – is a budget-friendly, nourishing meal made from humble ingredients that even a penniless widow could afford. It is the very definition of cucina povera poor cooking using cheap, seasonal vegetables such as potatoes, onions and cauliflower. Just a couple of generations ago, almost every household was self-sufficient in the ingredients department: its larder was the veg patch or field, plus a few chickens for eggs. Milk was delivered fresh, milked directly on your doorstep from the goat, cheese and pasta were homemade and bread was always on the table, sometimes the sole ingredient of a frugal meal. Many lived on just what they could afford to grow in their field and meat was a rare treat saved for special occasions. Characteristically green and white from the type of vegetables used, this soup is a symbol of resilience and resourcefulness, proving how a filling, nutritious meal can be created from just a few simple, readily available ingredients.

What makes this soup different are the eggs that are poached directly in the brothy mix at the end, along with ġbejniet – traditional Maltese goat’s cheese providing nutritious protein and turning it into a complete, hearty dish. In preparation for this article, I decided to make Soppa tal-Armla for lunch on the first day of October as a freak storm thundered outside signalling the definitive end to summer, at least for that day.

“Hmm, what are you cooking?” asked my English husband hungrily.

I looked at him, not sure how to respond.

“Widow’s Soup,” I finally said. “It’s research,” I continued, unhelpfully.

Every cookbook and blog I checked seemed to have its own version of the recipe, which is unsurprising given that the soup is basically a pot of humble goodness using whatever is in season. It is believed that its name derives from the fact that a widow’s neighbours, taking pity on her reduced income, would donate whatever ingredient they could spare, and she would add it in her pot to make a meal. I decided to stick to tradition as much as possible, using potatoes, white onions, celery, cauliflower, peas and spinach. Food writer Helen Caruana Galizia, who wrote The Food and Cookery of Malta and Gozo, a veritable bible of local gastronomy, adds kohlrabi, cos lettuce, curly endive and even a handful of borage, a traditional addition “that has largely been forgotten”. She recalls how eminent politician Herbert Ganado, who wrote the four-volume Rajt Malta Tinbidel (I saw Malta change) biography of the nation wrapped around his autobiography, goes into raptures over this soup prepared for him and his siblings by their maid Dolor whenever they visited her house. In an attempt to trace the origin of this dish, Caruana Galizia points out that in some parts of Spain, namely Andalucia and Catalonia, they too like to poach eggs and add soft cheese to soups and stews. She suggests that this practice might have been introduced to Malta by Spanish Knights of St John, who hailed from Castile and Aragon, or earlier still, from the time when the islands were part of the Catalan empire of the Kings of Aragon after the Sicilian Vespers of 1282. Whatever the story, the soup remains a staple of the Maltese kitchen to this day, and not just among widows.

Widow’s soup recipe

Try this recipe from The Food and Cookery of Malta and Gozo by Helen Caruana Galizia.

Serves 4

INGREDIENTS

2 onions, sliced

2 potatoes, peeled and chopped

50g butter

Olive oil

200g cauliflower florets

1kg fresh spinach

1 stick celery

1 kohlrabi, chopped

1 cos lettuce, chopped

1 curly endive, chopped

400g peas

4 eggs

4 fresh ġbejniet (or other soft goat’s cheese)

4 tbsp ricotta

Pepper and salt

Optional: borage, a small bunch