Italian food is regional food and each region has its incomparable dishes. These vary from town to village and the rivalries through countless generations over whose is best have brought superb results.
Nothing warms the body and soul on a crisp fall day or cold winter day like a great soup. I was raised in Italy (mainly) and the Italians make innumerable fantastic soups.
This is a recipe for an authentic ribollita which is the classic peasant style Tuscan vegetable and bean soup. Added thickness and body comes from the addition of old bread. Ribollita is quite thick for a soup. Also, it should be noted that my recipe deviates slightly from the norm as the old bread is normally mixed right into the soup at the end. My method keeps it a bit more firm. Ribollita is a tribute to the land of Tuscany and those peasant households that made incredible food with inexpensive ingredients. The soup tastes of the land, the farm grown vegetables and the care that the cook has given to its making. I spent a few years in Tuscany and there my first son was born, I met and married Mr. Lister and fell in love with ribollita. It is made with a particular type of kale called ‘cavolo nero,’ which is called black leaf kale, dinosaur kale, or lacinato kale in English. In a pinch I have used other types of kale, but quite frankly, the result is inferior–it does not have the right flavor and life is just too short to eat inferior food when, with a little effort and sense of adventure, you can have the very best result. You and your loved ones are worth the effort. I was fortunate to find black leaf kale at Whole Foods in Bedford, MA. Here is a link to an image of cavolo nero. The genius of this soup is in the name. Ribollita means ‘re-boiled’ or heated again because it tastes even better on the second and third day.
Elisa’s Ribollita Toscana
Tools
- Large Stock Pot with lid
- Wooden Spoon
- Ladle
- Deep bowl for soaking beans
- Pot with lid for cooking beans
- Sieve or collander (optional but helpful)
- Food Mill (optional but helpful)
- Immersion Blender (optional but helpful)
- Large baking sheet
Ingredients
| 1 bunch | cavolo nero (black leaf kale) ribbed and cut into approx. 1 inch pieces |
| 1/4 |
cabbage cored and cut into 1 inch pieces |
| 1 bunch |
leafy beet tops (greens) ribbed and cut into approx. 1 inch pieces |
| 1 | leek cut into 1/4 inch slices – remove the root end and darker green part |
| 1 |
onion peeled and cut in half (lengthwise) and then cut into 1/4 inch half round slices |
| 2 |
potatoes (I like Yukon gold types for this) peeled and cut into 1 inch chunks |
| 2 | carrots – peeled, cut length-wise and sliced into 1/2 inch pieces |
| 2 | zucchini – cut length-wise and sliced into 1/4 inch pieces |
| 2 | celery stalks – cut length-wise and sliced into 1/4 inch pieces |
| 10 oz. |
dry cannellini beans |
| 2 |
tomatoes of the canned type (or 1/2 cup canned crushed tomatoes or 2 peeled and seeded fresh plum tomatoes) |
| Extra Virgin Olive Oil – please use the good stuff with a green color and fruity taste (fruttato) the original Tuscan recipe is adamant about the use of Tuscan olive oil but I’m a bit more lax | |
| salt and pepper (I use Kosher or gray salt and pepper freshly ground from a mill) | |
| 9 oz. |
Bread in one-inch cubes – A Tuscan boule or that type of European crusty bread |
Soak the beans for about 8 hours in a bowl of cold water with the water covering the beans by about 3 or 4 inches. Drain the soaking water and cook beans in 2 liters of water until tender (about 1 hour). You will be using both the beans and the water that they cooked in.
Wash all vegetables thoroughly.
In a large stock pot (preferably wide with room to stir a bit) gently cook the onion in about 1/2 cup of olive oil. Bit by bit add the rest of the vegetables, beginning with the leek, cabbage and kale. Stir intermittently and you will notice that the leafy vegetables ‘shrink’ quite a bit. The process of adding the vegetables and cooking them in the pot should take about 10 minutes or so.
Add the water that the beans cooked in and 1/2 of the beans and stir them in gently. Take the other half of the beans and pass through a food mill. What you want here is the interior of the beans and not the skins. This bean paste serves as a lovely thickener. If you don’t have a food mill, then put them in a food processor and strain the processed beans through a sieve.
Add salt and pepper to taste and let the soup simmer at low heat for about 2 hours. Either ‘zip’ an immersion blender into it for a few seconds or mash with a large spoon. What you want here is some mushy vegetables but some should retain their shape.
Toast the bread on a sheet pan in a 400 degree oven for about 4 minutes.
Place about a 1/2 cup of toasted bread cubes in the serving bowls and ladle soup over them until well covered. Add some freshly grated cheese such as Grana or Parmigiano over it (not very traditional and it can be omitted but I like it). Drizzle a thread of fruity olive oil over each serving and let sit for about 3 minutes in order for bread to ‘amalgamate’ into the soup.
There! You have a Nirvana-like experience in a bowl. Good for the body and the soul.
