Ribollita soup

Ribollita is a first course of the Tuscan culinary tradition based on Stale Bread and Vegetables. A poor hearty and tasty dish that will conquer you. It was born as a poor dish and remains so, despite the continuous evolution of the kitchen, the ingredients have remained unchanged over time: stale Tuscan bread, Black Cabbage and Cannellini beans. To give the dish its characteristic flavor are added Peeled Tomatoes, Rosemary and Sautéed. The history of Ribollita Toscana is quite ancient and has its origins when the Tuscan nobles used to consume the Soup inside Tuscan Loaves deprived of the crumb. These were then reused by the servants who added them chopped to their poor vegetable soups.

Ingredients for 6 people

FOR BEANS:

350 g dried beans

1 clove of garlic

1 tablespoon of Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1 sprig of Rosemary

1 teaspoon coarse salt

FOR RIBOLLITA:

220 g Stale Bread

300 g black cabbage

200 g cabbage

300 g Swiss chard

180 g peeled tomatoes

1 Carrot

2 stalks of celery

1 onion

salt to taste

Pepe to taste

Procedure

To prepare the Ribollita, start with the beans. After a day of soaking, boil them in 2 liters of water together with the clove of garlic, rosemary and oil. In a traditional pot the cooking time of the cannellini is about an hour, while in a pressure cooker the times are halved and 25-30 minutes calculated from the whistle will suffice. About 5 minutes before the end of cooking, remember to add salt: legumes should never be salted at the beginning or will remain hard and will not cook. Now that the beans are ready, remove the rosemary and the clove of garlic. Take a third, which you will keep aside, and blend the remaining ones, together with the cooking water, until you get a cream that is not too homogeneous. Now prepare the vegetables: peel the carrot and chop it together with the celery stalk and onion. Heat the oil in a large pot and brown the chopped for 3-4 minutes before adding the peeled tomatoes that you are going to crush with a fork. Meanwhile, remove the central hard rib cabbage and cut it into two-centimeter strips. Proceed in a similar way with the chard and black cabbage, then add everything in the pan with the sauté, covering them completely with the broth obtained by blending the beans. Once boiling, cook for 45 minutes. When cooked, season with salt and pepper and add the beans kept aside. Put on the bottom of a new pot the slices of stale bread deprived of the crust and cover them with the ribollita. Let it rest for a couple of hours, then stir so that the bread breaks and put back on the heat to heat it one last time before serving. Spread over the plates and complete the Ribollita with a round of raw oil.

Recommendations

Ribollita lends itself very well to being prepared well in advance. If at the time of serving it seems too dry, add a ladle or two of water or vegetable broth. Do not forget to complete, once distributed on the plates, with a round of raw oil and ground fresh pepper.

Preservation

Ribollita can be kept in the refrigerator for a couple of days in an airtight container. If you have used fresh ingredients for its preparation, you can also freeze it in single-portion containers.