Castelluccio di Norcia, Umbria
Zuppa di lenticchie di Castelluccio
Castelluccio lentil soup from Norcia, Umbria
The lentil soup of Norcia's high plateau, made with the tiny, thin-skinned lentils of Castelluccio, an EU PGI since 1997, cooked without soaking over a soffritto of vegetables, garlic and sage.
- Course
- ZuppeSoups
- Serves
- 4
- Hands-on
- 30 min
- Cooking
- 58 min
In breve
In short
Also called zuppa di lenticchie di Castelluccio di Norcia, zuppa di lenticchie IGP di Castelluccio di Norcia, Castelluccio lentil soup and Umbrian lentil soup.
- Vegetarian
- Vegan
- Castelluccio di Norcia PGI lentils: small, flat and thin-skinned, washed, with no soaking needed.
- A soffritto of onion, carrot, celery, potato, garlic and sage in a little olive oil.
- The lentils covered with cold water, a little passata, then about 40 minutes at a gentle simmer under the lid.
- The liquid must always cover the lentils; the garlic clove comes out before serving.
- Served with raw extra virgin olive oil, and toasted bread if you like.
La provenienza
Where this recipe comes from
Castelluccio is a hamlet of Norcia, at 1,452 metres, above the plateau that bears its name in the Monti Sibillini National Park: the bed of a lake that dried up in prehistoric times, under snow from late November to mid-March. Its lentils are sown as soon as the snow melts and flower from late May into July, their small white flowers among the poppies and cornflowers of the ‘Fiorita’ of the Pian Grande; seeds have been found in Neolithic tombs of about 3000 BC. Since 1997 the EU has protected the Lenticchia di Castelluccio di Norcia as a PGI. Its specification reserves the name to the local lentils grown on the plateau, at an average altitude of 1,400 metres: roundish, flattened seeds, a thousand of them weighing about 23 grams, sold in colours from speckled green to light brown, some of them tiger-striped. The lentils are very small, and growers and cooks prize them for a skin so thin and tender that they need no soaking and are cooked in about twenty minutes.
The PGI protects the lentil, not the soup, and the soup has no official recipe. We compared nine sources and publish the most widely recognised version: a soffritto of onion, carrot, celery, potato, garlic and sage in olive oil, the lentils covered with cold water, a little tomato passata, about forty minutes under the lid, then raw olive oil and toasted bread. The full recipes agree that the lentils go into the pot unsoaked, with garlic and celery, and cook for 30 to 40 minutes in water that covers them, and that the soup is finished with olive oil and toasted bread; a plainer local version, the producers' own, keeps only the celery and garlic. The amounts and times the recipe leaves open (the water, oil, sage and salt, the weight of the potato, the heat and length of each stage) and the rules for leftovers are ours, and say so where they appear.
- Provenance
- A regional tradition documented in cookbooks and local practice, with no single official text.
- Defined by
- Umbrian tradition
- Reference
- Compared across 9 sources, listed below; this page publishes the most widely recognised version.
- Sources
- Umbriatourism, the Region of Umbria's official tourism portal: zuppa di lenticchie IGP di Castelluccio di Norcia, a traditional recipe for four (Italian)
- Umbriatourism, the Region of Umbria's official tourism portal: the Castelluccio di Norcia PGI lentil (Italian)
- AIS Lombardia, ViniPlus di Lombardia no. 25: the Castelluccio di Norcia PGI lentil, by Gabriele Merlo, with a lentil soup for four (Italian)
- Gambero Rosso: all about lentils, with eight Italian varieties, by Antonio Caso, 2022 (Italian)
- Michelin Guide Italy: the Castelluccio lentil, its origins and customs, 6 August 2019 (Italian)
- Regione Marche: the specification of the Lenticchia di Castelluccio di Norcia PGI, decree of 23 December 1998, GURI no. 20 of 26 January 1999 (unofficial copy; Italian)
- EU register (eAmbrosia): Lenticchia di Castelluccio di Norcia, PGI, file PGI-IT-1557, protected since 13 June 1997, with its summary sheet and the 2019 temporary amendments
- Official Journal: Commission Regulation (EC) No 1065/97 of 12 June 1997, which registers the name (Italian)
- Cooperativa Lenticchia IGP di Castelluccio di Norcia, the producers' cooperative that applied for the PGI: its traditional lentil soup for four (Italian)
Ingredienti
Ingredients
The original recipe serves 4
For the soup
To serve, if you like
Equipment
- Earthenware pot (the recipe's own suggestion) or a heavy saucepan of about 3 l, with a lid; earthenware needs a heat diffuser on gas, and an adapter disc on induction
- Fine sieve, for washing the lentils, and a tray or plate to look them over
- Chopping board and knife
- Wooden spoon and a ladle
- Kettle of hot water, for topping up
- Grill or a dry frying pan, for the bread
- Shallow containers and a probe thermometer, for any leftovers
Preparazione
Method
Scaled to 4 servings: the amounts in the steps follow. Pot and pan sizes and cooking times are still for the original 4.
About 1½ hours, most of it unattended. Wash the lentils and chop the vegetables (15 minutes), sauté the soffritto (8–10 minutes), add the lentils and cold water and bring it to the boil (10–15 minutes), season it, then let it simmer under the lid for about 40 minutes, stirring often and keeping the lentils covered. Toast the bread during the last 6 minutes or so of the simmer, then take out the garlic and serve.
- 30 minhands-on
- 58 mincooking
Prepare the lentils and vegetables
-
Hands-on 5 min
Spread the 300 g of lentils on a tray and pick out any small stones or bits of husk. Tip them into a fine sieve and rinse them under cold running water, stirring them with your hand, until the water runs clear. Leave them to drain. There is no need to soak them.
Check The rinsing water runs clear and there is no grit left among the lentils.
Tip Castelluccio lentils have a thin, tender skin, so they go into the pot straight from dry.
-
Hands-on 10 min
Peel the onion, carrot and potato. Chop the onion, carrot, celery and potato finely, into small dice of about 5 mm. Peel the garlic clove and leave it whole, so it can be found and taken out at the end.
Check All the pieces are small and roughly the same size, so they soften together.
Cook the soup
-
Cooking 8–10 minHeat medium-low
Put the pot over medium-low heat with the 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Add the chopped vegetables, the garlic clove and the sage leaves and sauté them gently, stirring now and then, for 8–10 minutes.
Check The onion is soft and translucent and the vegetables are lightly coloured at the edges; the garlic is pale gold, not brown.
Tip Our guide: about 2 tablespoons of oil is the recipe's ‘drizzle’ for four.
Tip If the garlic starts to brown, turn the heat down: browned garlic makes the soup bitter.
-
Hands-on 2 min
Add the drained lentils and pour in about 1.2 l of cold water, enough to cover them well, by about 5 cm.
Check The lentils and vegetables are well under the water.
Tip Our guide: the amount of water is ours; what matters is that the lentils stay covered all the way through.
-
Cooking 10–15 minHeat medium-high
Turn the heat up to medium-high and bring the pot to the boil, uncovered. Skim off any grey foam that gathers on top.
Check Bubbles break across the whole surface.
-
Hands-on 2 minHeat low
As soon as it boils, lower the heat until the soup barely bubbles. Stir in the 100 ml of passata, about 6 g of salt (a level teaspoon) and a few grinds of black pepper.
Check Only a few small bubbles rise, slowly, at the surface.
Tip Our guide: the salt is a starting point; taste and adjust it at the end.
-
Cooking 40 minHeat low
Put the lid on and cook at a gentle simmer for about 40 minutes, stirring often (every 5 minutes or so) so nothing catches on the bottom. Each time, check the level: the liquid must always cover the lentils. If it drops, add a little hot water from the kettle.
Check The lentils are tender right through, with no chalky centre, and most of their skins are still whole; the potato is soft and starting to break up; the soup is brothy, with the liquid still covering the lentils.
Tip Taste a lentil after about 20 minutes: Castelluccio lentils are often tender by then, and they hold their shape well in a soup. The rest of the time softens the potato and thickens the soup.
Tip Top up with hot water, not cold, so the simmer does not stop.
Serve
-
Hands-on 6 minHeat medium
If you are serving bread, start this about 6 minutes before the end of the simmer, so the soup still comes off the heat at about 40 minutes. Cut the country bread into slices about 1.5 cm thick and toast them under a hot grill, or in a dry frying pan over medium heat, for 2–3 minutes on each side.
Check Golden and crisp on both sides, still a little soft in the middle.
-
Hands-on 2 min
When the 40 minutes are up, turn off the heat. Fish out the garlic clove and throw it away. Taste the soup and adjust the salt and pepper.
Check No garlic clove left in the pot, and the soup is seasoned to your taste.
-
Hands-on 3 min
Ladle the soup into warm bowls and finish each with a thin drizzle of raw extra virgin olive oil. Serve the toasted bread with it, one slice for each bowl.
Check Hot soup, a thread of green oil on top of each bowl.
Tip Leftovers: into the fridge in shallow containers within 2 hours of the soup coming off the heat, eaten within 3 days, and brought back to a rolling boil, at least 75 °C at the centre, each time. It thickens as it stands: loosen it with a little hot water.
The essentials, for cooks who know the dish. Switch to Detailed for quantities, temperatures, times and checks at every step.
Press “I’m here” on the step you are on, and again when it is done.Tap the pin on the step you are on, and the tick when it is done. Timers keep running while you scroll.
Da sapere
Good to know
- WhenQuando
- Castelluccio lentils, harvested in summer, come to the table in winter, and they are the traditional legume of the year's-end feasts. Source
- VariantsVarianti
- With celery and garlic only: The producers' own plainer soup: for four, 400 g of lentils in a litre of water with a celery stalk and a garlic clove, in an earthenware pot if possible, cooked for about 40 minutes; near the end it gets its salt and pepper, crostini of toasted bread flavoured with a little garlic, and olive oil. Source
Errori comuni
Common mistakes
- Soaking them: they need none, and the times on this page are for lentils cooked straight from dry.
- Letting the liquid drop below the lentils: keep them covered all the time, topping up with hot water.
- Leaving it at a full boil: lower the heat as soon as it boils, to a gentle simmer.
- Browning the garlic in the soffritto: soften it gently, or the soup turns bitter.
- Forgetting the garlic clove: take it out before serving.
Fuori dall'Italia
Cooking it outside Italy
- Look for ‘Lenticchia di Castelluccio di Norcia’ with ‘Indicazione Geografica Protetta’ (IGP; PGI in English) on the pack: the specification allows only jute bags or cardboard or plastic packs of 250 g, 500 g or 1 kg, each sealed and marked with the year of production (‘annata di produzione’).
- Tomato passata is sieved tomato purée, sold in the US as strained tomatoes; it is not tomato paste.
- Other lentils behave differently: larger ones, such as those of Altamura, are soaked the night before, so the times on this page hold for small, thin-skinned lentils like Castelluccio's.
From nonnario.com/recipes/zuppa-di-lenticchie-di-castelluccio/, where you will find its sources, its story and the step photos. Sources checked in November 2026.
