Chop finely the onion, the carrot and the celery and brown them lightly with a few tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil in a large pot.

Soak the stale bread – cut into slices – into cold water.

When the chopped vegetables are golden brown, pour the tomato purée into the pot and let it simmer for about 15 minutes.

Squeeze the stale bread with your hands to remove all the water and crumble the bread into the tomato sauce.

Let it cook for about 10 minutes over medium heat.

Purée the garlic and add it to the tomato bread soup along with some basil leaves.

Remove from the heat and stir into half of a glass of extra-virgin olive oil. Season with salt and set it aside covered with a lid for at least one hour.

Now, roll the dough. You can use a classic rolling-pin or the pasta maker: keep rolling and flipping and rolling and flipping until you get a dough that is paper thin. Cut out round shapes with a cookie cutter.

Place a teaspoon of filling in the centre of each circle of pasta and crimp into a semicircle, sealing the edges.

Place them aside until you’re done.

Boil them for a few minutes in salted water, until they float to the surface and the pasta is soft.

Serve them with a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil, grated cheese and a leaf of basil