Ribollita is a vegetable and white bean soup, typical of Italian Tuscany. It is a recipe for use and its name means “re-boiled”, since it was reheated the next day, also adding the stale bread that would have been left over.
Ingredients:
1 cup of “Cannellini” white beans
200 gr of “Lacinato kale”
200 gr of “Savoy cabbage”
200 chard
1 onion
1 celery stalk
1 carrot
1 garlic clove
1-2 peeled tomatoes
1 potato
Some bread from the day before
Some rosemary and thyme
Pepperoncino (optional)
Salt, pepper and extra virgin olive oil
Leave the beans to soak in plenty of water the night before. Next day, discard the water and boil them for an hour together with a clove of garlic, a bay leaf and a sprig of rosemary.
When they are tender, discard the aromas, reserve approx. a third of the beans, and blend the rest with the broth.
In a second pot, heat a little extra virgin olive oil without letting it smoke. Chop and fry the onion, a clove of garlic, and optionally, the pepperoncino. Peel and chop the carrot, potato and celery stalk, and add everything to the sofrito. Then add the peeled and chopped tomatoes.
Remove the fibrous part from the center of the kale, cabbage and chard. Chop them and add them to the pot. Cover everything with the bean cream and add a little more water if necessary. Season with rosemary and thyme. Bring to a boil, cover, and cook over low heat for 45 minutes. At the end, correct the salt and add the previously reserved beans.
Let stand and cool for a few hours, or ideally overnight. Arrange some slices of stale bread in the bottom of a pot, cover with the Ribollita and reheat for a few minutes. Serve with a little ground pepper and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.
Tips ans tricks:
- In order to shorten cooking times, it is possible to use a can of already cooked Cannellini beans. In this case, reserve a third, crush the rest and continue the recipe as indicated above.
- One of the stars of this traditional recipe are the mentioned Cannellini beans, a type of legume widely used in central and southern Italy. They are slightly larger than navy beans or haricots and are very closely related to red beans.
- The other big star in this recipe is the Lacinato kale (cavolo nero in Italian), also sometimes called “palm cabbage” or “black cabbage”, since its large leaves grow high and spread out like a palm tree. It is a very aromatic plant with a very distinctive taste. It is related to kale, but its leaves are bigger and less ruffled.
- As this is a recipe of use, you can vary the ingredients according to availability. But I strongly recommend you to get the Cannellini and cavolo nero for sure.