Ribollita Soup
Ribollita is a famous Tuscan bread soup, a hearty potage made with bread and vegetables. There are many variations but the main ingredients always include leftover bread, cannellini beans, lacinato kale, cabbage, and other vegetables such as carrot, chard, celery, potatoes, and onion. Feel free to improvise, as your Italian nonna would have done. It’s great made a day ahead, and it freezes well. I save extra broth when I make beans, and I added some of that to this soup.
INGREDIENTS
500 g dry white beans
1 cabbage, 1 whole cabbage or ½ of two varieties
2 heads tuscan black kale
2 celery stalks
4 carrots
1 large onion
parsley
2 leeks
500 g bread, at least 2 days old
500 g fresh or canned tomatoes
olive oil
METHOD
In a large bowl, cover dry beans with cold water by an inch and soak overnight.
Drain and rinse the beans and place them in a large pot with 10 cups of water. Bring to a full boil for 15 minutes. Lower the heat and simmer, uncovered, until the beans are al dente, about 45 minutes. Set aside.
Coarsely chop celery, carrots, onion, and leeks.
Place chopped vegetables in a soup pot with a generous. of olive oil.
Coarsely chop cabbage and kale and add to the soup. Cook until soft, 20 mins.
Add tomatoes.
Blend ½ of beans to a puree. Add puree, whole beans, and water to the pot.
Add salt and pepper to taste, cook for about 2 hours stirring often.
Slice the bread very finely and put in a large oven-proof dish. Stack the slices of bread to half the depth of the dish and gently pour the soup of vegetables over the bread. Ensure all the bread is covered.
Leave for one day before eating. “Ribollita” means recooked so the next day you can put the whole pan in the oven for 10-15 minutes.