Greetings from Tuscany! Yes, we moved again. 🤗 We left Lisbon (Portugal) at the end of the summer, we live now in the countryside of Lucca (Italy). Tuscany is world-wide famous for its great cuisine and excellent food products. From pecorino (sheep’s cheese) to truffles. Traditional Tuscan food offers some of the best regional cuisines in Italy and the Ribollita soup is one of its most popular dishes.
Made with different kinds of cabbage, beans, potatoes and bread provides an almost creamy texture which is exquisite and very satisfying. The two characteristic key ingredients for making an authentic Ribollita are cannellini beans and kale (in Italian “cavolo nero”, black cabbage).
VERY-SLOW FOOD: “Ribollita” means cooked twice. In fact the recipe requires that you prepare the minestrone one day in advance, let it rest, and add bread to the Ribollita the following day or at least a few hours later.
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Ingredients
- Soup
onions 1 or 2
garlic 1 clove + opt. 1 clove for the bread
carrots 2
celery 2 o 3 stalks
potatoes 4
chard 6/7 leaves
kale a small bunch
white cabbage half head
zucchini 2
2 ripe tomatoes or 1/2 cup plain tomato sauce
precooked cannellini beans 2 cups (or one small can)
3 or more quarts of water or broth
thyme (and/or rosemary) a few stems
XV Olive Oil
- Ribollita
stale bread 4/6 slices (depending on the thickness)
XV Olive Oil
Grated cheese (aged pecorino or parmigiano)
Directions<br>
- VEGETABLE SOUP
Soffritto: finely chop carrots, celery, onions, and garlic. Add XV olive oil to a large pot. Add chopped carrots, celery, onions, garlic, and cook on low until soft.
- While the soffritto is cooking chop the remaining vegetables, add to the ‘soffritto‘. Cover completely with warm water, add herbs, salt and pepper. Simmer for about 2 hours.
- Remove from heat and let cool down. The soup should have plenty of broth. Taste for salt. Remove herbs. Refrigerate overnight or for at least 4 hours.
- RIBOLLITA
Preheat oven at 350 F. If you like a strong flavor of garlic brush a clove half onto the bread slices (bruschetta style) and lay the slices at the bottom of the baking dish. If you DO NOT like too much garlic just use the plain slices. Add soup and bake for about 20 minutes. If your dish is deep enough you can make two layers of bread. Just add enough liquid: the bread will absorb most of it. I usually make 2 quarts of extra broth to use in case the soup is too dry. And that is exactly what usually happens!
Serve with a generous drizzle of XVOO, freshly grated black pepper and some grated cheese. Enjoy the Ribollita!
Variation: You can bake the soup with cheese on the top and make it even more tasteful!
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