Ribollita in Italian means re-boiled, and simply refers to a leftover vegetable soup, mixed with stale bread and then reheated.
My recipe is more like a guideline since the soup has been traditionally cooked with pretty much whatever was available from the vegetable garden.
Ingredients:
5 tablespoons olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
1 celery stalk, chopped
2 cloves of minced garlic
Salt and ground black pepper
1 Tbsp. tomato paste or 1/3 cup of canned diced tomatoes or 1 fresh tomato
1/2 cup cooked or canned cannellini beans
1L vegetable or chicken stock
250-300g chopped kale
4 large, thick slices whole-grain bread
1 small red onion, thinly sliced
2-3 thyme sprigs (leaves only)
crushed red pepper flakes
1 bay leaf
optianal:
Add fresh vegetables:
Sweet potatoes or butternut squash (cook before adding)
Savoy cabbage
Swiss chard
Zucchini
Leeks (white parts only), sliced
...freshly grated Parmesan
How i did it:
- Start by putting the dried beans in salted, cold water – about five times as much water as beans by weight.
Now heat the beans to a gentle simmer – keep the beans at a simmer, never a hard boil.
The time of cooking really varies on the bean variety and there is no better method than… tasting.
Cannellini beans usually take way more than an hour – and possibly over three hours.
When the beans are cooked, drain them, reserving the cooking water.
In a blender or food processor, puree about 3/4 of the beans and return the bean purée to the cooking water with remaining whole beans.
OR: Drain the beans; if they’re canned, rinse them as well.
- Meanwhile, prepare the soffritto: put 2 tablespoons of the oil in a large pot over medium heat.
When it’s hot, add onion, carrot, celery and garlic; sprinkle with salt and pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are soft, 5 to 10 minutes.
Add the thyme leaves, the remaining fresh vegetables, the tomato paste, the bean purée + whole beans (with its water if You like), along with an additional 1L of stock.
Bring to a boil, then reduce heat so the soup bubbles steadily; cover and cook, stirring once or twice to break up the tomatoes, until the flavors meld, 15 to 20 minutes.
Fish out and discard rosemary and thyme stems, if you like, and stir in kale.
Taste and adjust seasoning.
Add bread in large pieces and wait.
Wait, wait and wait again.
...so the bread essentially falls apart and thickens the soup.
The soup should be thick but not dry, so add a little more cooking water if you need to loosen it.
Then cook again for 5 minutes until boiling but only before serving.
OR: Let soup sit for at least a few hours, ideally overnight.
Then, reheat the soup, boiling for a few minutes at low heat.
Stir, add olive oil and eat.
You can scatter red onion slices over the top, drizzle with oil and sprinkle with Parmesan if you like.
There are a few boundaries for your creativity:
Ribollita was originally developed as a way to utilize stale bread.
- cook the dried beans without soaking them: “slowly.”
If you cook the fresh beans and add rosemary and salt in the cooking water, you can use some of that water to thicken and flavor the soup.
Another trick is to use a hand blender to blend sauteed garlic cloves, a some cannellini beans and fried sage together and then add that paste to the soup.
Since cooking the beans takes so long, cook the beans the first day (maybe in the evening, while doing other stuff) and then prepare the soup the next day, which then serve on the third day (!) - the taste will be at its peak the following day.
If you don't have cannellini beans you can substitute:
- White (navy) beans
- Flageolets
- Try to keep the same proportion of vegetables to bread.
Cavolo nero should always be present for an authentic taste.
It is excellent when made with swiss chard, cavolo nero and good Italian stale bread.
- Don't stint on the herbs because the white beans absorb flavor.
- Don't put in the microwave.
Ribollita means "boiled again".
- Cook early in the morning or better the day before.
- Ribollita | authentic recipe | Italian recipes | Tuscan | soup
- Canned Or Dried Beans? 5 Ideas When Buying Beans - DrWeil.com
My recipe is more like a guideline since the soup has been traditionally cooked with pretty much whatever was available from the vegetable garden.
Ingredients:
5 tablespoons olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
1 celery stalk, chopped
2 cloves of minced garlic
Salt and ground black pepper
1 Tbsp. tomato paste or 1/3 cup of canned diced tomatoes or 1 fresh tomato
1/2 cup cooked or canned cannellini beans
1L vegetable or chicken stock
250-300g chopped kale
4 large, thick slices whole-grain bread
1 small red onion, thinly sliced
2-3 thyme sprigs (leaves only)
crushed red pepper flakes
1 bay leaf
optianal:
Add fresh vegetables:
Sweet potatoes or butternut squash (cook before adding)
Savoy cabbage
Swiss chard
Zucchini
Leeks (white parts only), sliced
...freshly grated Parmesan
How i did it:
- Start by putting the dried beans in salted, cold water – about five times as much water as beans by weight.
Now heat the beans to a gentle simmer – keep the beans at a simmer, never a hard boil.
The time of cooking really varies on the bean variety and there is no better method than… tasting.
Cannellini beans usually take way more than an hour – and possibly over three hours.
When the beans are cooked, drain them, reserving the cooking water.
In a blender or food processor, puree about 3/4 of the beans and return the bean purée to the cooking water with remaining whole beans.
OR: Drain the beans; if they’re canned, rinse them as well.
- Meanwhile, prepare the soffritto: put 2 tablespoons of the oil in a large pot over medium heat.
When it’s hot, add onion, carrot, celery and garlic; sprinkle with salt and pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are soft, 5 to 10 minutes.
Add the thyme leaves, the remaining fresh vegetables, the tomato paste, the bean purée + whole beans (with its water if You like), along with an additional 1L of stock.
Bring to a boil, then reduce heat so the soup bubbles steadily; cover and cook, stirring once or twice to break up the tomatoes, until the flavors meld, 15 to 20 minutes.
Fish out and discard rosemary and thyme stems, if you like, and stir in kale.
Taste and adjust seasoning.
Add bread in large pieces and wait.
Wait, wait and wait again.
...so the bread essentially falls apart and thickens the soup.
The soup should be thick but not dry, so add a little more cooking water if you need to loosen it.
Then cook again for 5 minutes until boiling but only before serving.
OR: Let soup sit for at least a few hours, ideally overnight.
Then, reheat the soup, boiling for a few minutes at low heat.
Stir, add olive oil and eat.
You can scatter red onion slices over the top, drizzle with oil and sprinkle with Parmesan if you like.
There are a few boundaries for your creativity:
Ribollita was originally developed as a way to utilize stale bread.
- cook the dried beans without soaking them: “slowly.”
If you cook the fresh beans and add rosemary and salt in the cooking water, you can use some of that water to thicken and flavor the soup.
Another trick is to use a hand blender to blend sauteed garlic cloves, a some cannellini beans and fried sage together and then add that paste to the soup.
Since cooking the beans takes so long, cook the beans the first day (maybe in the evening, while doing other stuff) and then prepare the soup the next day, which then serve on the third day (!) - the taste will be at its peak the following day.
If you don't have cannellini beans you can substitute:
- White (navy) beans
- Flageolets
- Try to keep the same proportion of vegetables to bread.
Cavolo nero should always be present for an authentic taste.
It is excellent when made with swiss chard, cavolo nero and good Italian stale bread.
- Don't stint on the herbs because the white beans absorb flavor.
- Don't put in the microwave.
Ribollita means "boiled again".
- Cook early in the morning or better the day before.
- Ribollita | authentic recipe | Italian recipes | Tuscan | soup
- Canned Or Dried Beans? 5 Ideas When Buying Beans - DrWeil.com
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