Ribollita (Tuscan Bread and Bean Soup)

La storia di questo piatto

Ribollita is Tuscany's frugal soul, a soup born of the peasant kitchen where bread, beans and dark winter cabbage were never wasted. Its very name means 'boiled again', and it is said to grow deeper and kinder with each reheating, humble and noble at once.

Ingredienti

• 250 g Dried cannellini beans
• 4 leaves Sage (fresh)
• 2 sprigs Rosemary (fresh)
• 2 leaves Bay leaf
• 2500 ml Water (for cooking the beans)
• 150 g Onion
• 100 g Carrot
• 1 stalk Celery
• 3 cloves Garlic
• 100 ml Extra virgin olive oil (60 ml for the soffritto, 40 ml raw)
• 1 g Chili pepper (optional)
• 250 g Peeled tomatoes
• 350 g Tuscan kale (cavolo nero)
• 150 g Savoy cabbage
• 500 ml Vegetable broth
• 300 g Stale Tuscan bread
• 10 g Salt (5 g for the beans, the rest to adjust)
• 2 pinches Black pepper
• 50 g Red onion (optional, for serving)

Preparazione

1. The evening before, place the beans in a bowl, cover them with plenty of cold water and leave them to soak for about 12 hours. The next day, drain and rinse them under cold running water.
2. Put the beans in a large pot with sage, rosemary and bay leaf and cover with 2.5 litres of cold water. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat to minimum: the water should simmer gently, with an occasional bubble. Cook for about 90 minutes, adding 5 g of salt only during the last 15 minutes. The beans are ready when they crush easily between two fingers. While they cook, you can prepare the soffritto and the rest.
3. Drain the beans, keeping all the cooking water, which is the true base of the soup, and discard the aromatics. Blend about a third of the beans with a ladle of cooking water until creamy, and set aside the whole beans as well.
4. Finely chop the onion, carrot and celery into pieces as small as rice grains. In a large pot (at least 5 litres) heat 60 ml of oil over medium-low heat, then add the vegetables. Cook for about 8 minutes, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon, until soft and translucent, without letting them darken.
5. Finely chop the garlic and add it to the soffritto together with the chili pepper, if desired. Stir for about 1 minute, until fragrant, without letting it brown: if it darkens it becomes bitter.
6. Add the peeled tomatoes, crushing them with the spoon, and stir well. Cook over medium-low heat for about 10 minutes, stirring often so they don't stick to the bottom. If the sauce dries out too much, add a ladle of bean cooking water. The sauce is ready when it becomes darker and more concentrated, with the oil rising to the edges.
7. Wash the kale and cabbage and remove the hard central rib of each leaf, keeping only the tender part. Cut the leaves into strips about a finger wide. Add them to the sauce and wilt for about 5 minutes, stirring, until they reduce in volume and soften.
8. Pour the bean cream and the whole beans into the pot. Add about 1.2 litres of bean cooking water (if not enough, top up with hot water) and the 500 ml of hot vegetable broth, until you have about 1.7–2 litres of total liquid. Bring to a boil, then immediately lower the heat to minimum and simmer gently for about 25 minutes, until the cabbages are very tender and the flavours have blended. Adjust the salt with the remaining 5 g or so, tasting, and add pepper.
9. Cut the stale bread into slices about 1 cm thick; if it is not truly dry, toast it lightly in the oven. In a deep pot or dish, alternate layers of bread slices and layers of hot soup, finishing with a layer of soup. This is still soup with bread: it becomes true ribollita only after resting. Cover and let it rest at least one night in the refrigerator, so the bread absorbs the liquid and the soup becomes compact. Alternatively, if you are in a hurry, let it rest at least 30 minutes and serve immediately as a softer, less compact bread soup.
10. For the 'reboiling', the next day, transfer the soup to a pot, add a ladle of water or broth if it is too dry, and heat over low heat for about 15 minutes, stirring gently and breaking up the bread, until hot, thick and creamy. Alternatively, reheat in the oven at 180 °C for about 20 minutes. Taste and adjust salt and pepper. Serve in bowls with thinly sliced red onion (optional), a generous drizzle of the remaining 40 ml of raw extra virgin olive oil and a grinding of black pepper.