Ribollita
Tuscany · soup · serves 6 · 120 min total · easy
Day-old Tuscan bread was never thrown away. Reboiled with the previous night's beans and greens, it becomes ribollita — better the second day, sacred the third.
Ingredients
- 250 g dried cannellini beans (soaked) or 600 g cooked
- 400 g cavolo nero (lacinato kale)
- 300 g savoy cabbage
- 1 medium onion
- 1 medium carrot
- 2 stalks celery
- 3 cloves garlic
- 200 g tomato passata
- 300 g stale Tuscan bread, day-old
- 120 ml extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 tsp salt and pepper
Method
- Cook soaked beans in fresh water until tender, 60–90 minutes. Reserve liquid. Mash a third of the beans to a coarse purée.
- Sweat diced onion, carrot, celery, garlic in olive oil for 10 minutes.
- Add shredded cavolo nero and cabbage, cook 10 minutes to wilt.
- Add passata, the beans (whole and mashed), and bean liquid to cover by 4 cm. Simmer 40 minutes.
- Layer torn stale bread into the pot, push under the surface. Cook 10 more minutes — the bread should dissolve into the soup.
- Cool overnight in the fridge.
- Reheat the next day in the oven (ribollire = reboil) at 200°C until crusty on top, about 25 minutes. Drown each bowl in raw olive oil. Eat with a fork, not a spoon.