Tuscan ribollita is a warm, hearty, and flavorful soup made with vegetables, legumes, and stale bread. The must-have ingredients are kale and beans, preferably cannellini. Like pasta and potatoes or potato and cabbage soup, it is a truly satisfying and nutritious comfort food.
It is a very old dish (traced back to the 1500s), symbol of Tuscan tradition, originated as a poor peasant dish; a lean soup that was prepared on Fridays in large quantities and served until Sunday, reheated each day by adding leftover bread from the week.
Its name indeed comes from the tradition of “reboiling” the leftovers from the day before to heat and serve them again. In Pellegrino Artusi’s cookbook, it is included as “Tuscan lean soup of the farmers”.
Being a recovery dish, it was made with available vegetables, so each family cooked it in their own way, creating their own variant; this is why many versions exist, all excellent and original, making it difficult to pinpoint exact ingredients and quantities. The version I propose is the most well-known.
It’s a simple, economical, and delicious winter dish. I recommend trying it, and here are some additional recipes:
- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Economical
- Rest time: 12 Hours
- Preparation time: 30 Minutes
- Portions: 6 People
- Cooking methods: Stovetop
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: Fall, Winter
- Energy 266.30 (Kcal)
- Carbohydrates 37.72 (g) of which sugars 4.25 (g)
- Proteins 13.33 (g)
- Fat 6.28 (g) of which saturated 0.86 (g)of which unsaturated 0.93 (g)
- Fibers 10.29 (g)
- Sodium 570.68 (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
- 9 oz kale
- 7 oz savoy cabbage
- 7 oz chard
- 1.5 cups beans (cooked cannellini with cooking broth)
- 5 oz peeled tomatoes
- 7 oz potatoes
- 3.5 oz carrots
- 1 onion
- 3.5 oz celery
- 10.5 oz bread (unsalted Tuscan)
- to taste extra virgin olive oil
- to taste salt
- to taste pepper
- 9 oz dried cannellini beans
- 1 clove garlic
- 1 sprig rosemary
- to taste extra virgin olive oil
- to taste salt
- to taste pepper
- to taste water
Tools
- 1 Cutting Board
- 1 Knife sharp
- 1 Pan
- 1 Pot
- 1 Bowl
- 1 Immersion Blender
Method
Place the dried beans in a large bowl, cover with water, and let soak overnight.
The next day, sauté the garlic clove and rosemary in 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a pan, add the beans, salt, a little pepper, and cover everything with room temperature water. If you prefer, remove the garlic.
Cover and cook for 1 hour.
Once cooked, remove some beans and place them in a small bowl, blend the remaining beans with the cooking water. This will become the broth for the ribollita.
Peel the onion and carrot, wash the celery, and finely chop everything.
Wash and peel the potatoes, dice them
Cut the peeled tomatoes into pieces.
Thoroughly wash the kale, chard, and savoy cabbage, cut all the vegetables into strips, then into small pieces.
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Heat 4 tablespoons of oil in a pot, add the soffritto and sauté.
Add the potatoes, peeled tomatoes and simmer for 2 minutes, then add the savoy cabbage, chard, and kale.
Add the previously prepared bean broth and bring to a boil, the vegetables should be covered with broth, if not enough add water.
Cook the soup for 1 hour, stirring often. Add the reserved beans, boil for another 10 minutes and turn off the heat. Adjust salt and add a grind of black pepper.
Cut the stale bread into 1 cm slices. Take a very large bowl, pour two ladles of soup, place the bread slices on top, cover with two or three ladles of soup, then repeat the layers alternating bread and soup until the ingredients are used up.
Cover and cool at room temperature, then refrigerate overnight.
The next day, pour the soup into the pot (the bread will have absorbed a good amount of broth) and bring it to a boil, stirring occasionally.
Tuscan ribollita is ready, serve it on plates with a drizzle of oil.
Tips
Ribollita can be stored in the refrigerator for 5 days, when you want to enjoy it, bring it back to a boil in a pan on the stove and serve.
