Ribollita soup

Author: Veruska Anconitano, Award-Winning Food Travel Journalist, Sommelier & Outdoor LoverAuthor information
Veruska
About the author
Veruska Anconitano
Veruska is a a food travel journalist with awards to her credit, such as World Best Food Travel Journalist. She holds a certification as a sommelier and she is also an ardent lover of the outdoors. Aside from this, Veruska is a Multilingual SEO and Localization Consultant and co-owns multiple websites that cater to a global audience.
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Ribollita

Ribollita soup is one of the recipes that are traditionally associated with Tuscany: rustic, genuine, prepared only with easily available products and extremely seasonal, the Tuscan ribollita soup is a pleasure to give as a present and when it’s cold outside.

The real Tuscan ribollita has born as a poor dish that was prepared on Friday, when you had to eat thin and it was served heated the days after until it was possible to do so; this is why the very first soup, the freshly prepared one, should not be called ribollita, which becomes such only the day after its preparation, when it is heated with a little oil, reboiled precisely.

Ribollita is, therefore, the heated soup the day after where the heating process does notbanally mean placed on the stove but deprived of excess liquid in such a way that the final result is a fairly creamy dish.

Black cabbage, beans, and stale bread: these are the basic ingredients to prepare a ribollita soup as it should be. Next to the ingredients, the time available should be calculated: the ribollita is a recipe to be prepared with calm and tranquility, taking the necessary time so that all the ingredients can marry perfectly.

Like all traditional and regional recipes, even the Tuscan ribollita is prepared differently in the various families and in the various areas of the region so much that many even believe that it is typical only of the Florentine.

The recipe of the ribollita soup that I propose you is the one closest to the original and true Tuscan ribollita, always on condition that there really exists an original and true.

Ingredients for 6 people

  • 300 grams (10,5 ounces) of black cabbage
  • 250 grams (8,8 ounces) of cabbage
  • 2 potatoes
  • 2 carrots
  • 1 onion
  • 1 bunch of parsley
  • 200 grams (7 ounces) of tomato sauce (passata)
  • 1 celery
  • Extra virgin olive oil
  • Stale Tuscan bread (or Italian bread)

For the beans

  • 400 grams (14 ounces) of dried cannellini beans
  • 1 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 clove of garlic
  • black pepper
  • 1 liter of water
  • Salt

Method

  1. Soak the beans overnight so they soften; after the night or 24 hours, prepare a sauté with the garlic clove and oil and, once ready, add the beans, salt, pepper and cover with water. Allow the beans to cook.
  2. In a large saucepan, sauté the onion and the chopped parsley in the oil then add the black cabbage and the cabbage and cook for 5 minutes.
  3. Add the tomato sauce to the pot and then the diced carrot, the diced celery, the diced potatoes.
  4. Once the beans are cooked, add them in the pot with all the other vegetables and let everything cooks.
  5. Cut the stale bread and let it roast in the oven then take a big soup bowl or individual soup plates and alternate layers of bread and layers of cooked vegetables with their cooking broth.
  6. Let the ribollita to rest for at least 30 minutes so that the bread absorbs the broth and then serve it with the addition of a drizzle of good oil.

Preparation time: 3 hours

Ribollita toscana

Advice for preparing and storing your ribollita soup

  • The ribollita can be stored in the refrigerator, closed in an airtight container, for a maximum of 2 days;
  • In theory, and if we follow the classic and traditional recipe, the only black cabbage to be used should be the one exposed to winter frosts before being harvested, which makes the leaves more tender;
  • The perfect bread to use for the ribollita is the Tuscan one without salt. Clearly it’s possible to use any type of Italian sliced bread.
  • You can blend half of the beans for a creamier soup.
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