The Tuscan black kale soup is a traditional first course of Tuscan cuisine made with mixed vegetables, black kale, and cornmeal. Thanks to its characteristics, it results in a thick and creamy spooned soup.
The soup is a dish that embodies the simplicity and richness of Tuscan cuisine. It is the perfect blend between the strong, slightly bitter flavor of black kale and the delicacy of cornmeal, which tones down its taste, giving a perfect consistency.
This recipe, rooted in peasant tradition, originated in the province of Pistoia and has become a typical dish throughout Tuscany over time. As with ribollita, the recipe for this soup can vary from region to region.
Its preparation is very simple. You need to make a sauté with onion, celery, and carrot, to which you add the black kale and the cooking water from the beans. After about forty minutes, you add the slow-cooking polenta flour, to follow tradition, or the instant polenta, which allows for much faster preparation.
This dish has been a pleasant discovery for me. I love it, and I prepare it once a week during the winter. Before proceeding with the execution of the recipe, I leave you with a few ideas involving black kale:
- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Inexpensive
- Preparation time: 20 Minutes
- Portions: 4People
- Cooking methods: Stovetop
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: Fall, Winter
- Energy 144.85 (Kcal)
- Carbohydrates 24.82 (g) of which sugars 2.63 (g)
- Proteins 7.79 (g)
- Fat 1.28 (g) of which saturated 0.14 (g)of which unsaturated 0.41 (g)
- Fibers 6.14 (g)
- Sodium 190.74 (mg)
Indicative values for a portion of 100 g processed in an automated way starting from the nutritional information available on the CREA* and FoodData Central** databases. It is not food and / or nutritional advice.
* CREATES Food and Nutrition Research Center: https://www.crea.gov.it/alimenti-e-nutrizione https://www.alimentinutrizione.it ** U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. FoodData Central, 2019. https://fdc.nal.usda.gov
Ingredients
- 3 1/2 oz onion
- 3 1/2 oz carrot
- 2 1/2 oz celery
- 2 cloves garlic
- 9 oz black kale (net of waste)
- 7 oz dried cannellini beans (or 12 1/3 oz canned cannellini beans)
- 1 3/4 oz canned tomatoes
- 6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- to taste salt
- to taste black pepper
- to taste chili pepper (optional)
- 1 sprig rosemary
- 5 1/4 oz cornmeal (for polenta, I use instant polenta)
Tools
- 1 Cutting board
- 1 Pot
- 1 Knife
- 1 Pan
- 1 Bowl
- 1 Immersion blender
Procedure
Place the dried beans in a large bowl, cover them with water, and soak overnight.
The next day, brown the garlic clove and rosemary in 3 tablespoons of oil in a pan. Add the beans, salt, a little pepper, and cover everything with room temperature water. Remove the garlic if you don’t like it.
Cover and cook for 1 hour.
Once cooked, take some of the beans and place them in a small bowl. Blend the remaining beans with the cooking water to make the broth for the soup.
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If you want to skip this step, you can use canned beans and replace the bean cooking water with vegetable broth. In this case, add 7 oz of pre-cooked beans to the vegetable broth and blend everything together with the immersion blender.
Peel the onion and carrot, wash the celery, and finely chop everything.
Cut the canned tomatoes into pieces. Peel the garlic and crush it with the back of your hand.
Wash the black kale thoroughly and cut it into strips, then into small pieces.
**********************Heat 3 tablespoons of oil in a pot, add the garlic, celery, carrot, onion, and brown them. If you like, you can add some chili pepper. Remove the garlic.
Add the diced tomatoes, black kale, a pinch of salt, a pinch of pepper, and the beans with their cooking water, at least 1 1/2 quarts are needed. If not enough, add water or vegetable broth.
Bring to a boil and cook for 40 minutes. Taste and adjust with salt.
Pour the instant polenta into the soup while stirring continuously to avoid lumps. Cook for 5 minutes and turn off the heat. You should get a thick and creamy soup to eat with a spoon.
If you use slow-cooking polenta flour, proceed the same way, adding more water or vegetable broth if necessary. In this case, cooking will be longer, taking 40-45 minutes.The Tuscan black kale soup is ready; serve it hot with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and a grind of black pepper.
Tips
Storage
You can store the soup in the fridge for 3-4 days. It will taste even better in the following days.
If it thickens too much, becoming very compact, you can cut it into slices and grill it.
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