Ribollita

Tuscany's 'reboiled' soup: cavolo nero, cannellini beans, and vegetables simmered with stale bread until thick enough to stand a spoon in, the great cucina povera soup of the Florentine winter, finished with a flood of new olive oil

Origin: Tuscany, Italy

From the journey of Kale.

Ribollita, 'reboiled', is the most celebrated of the great frugal soups of Tuscany, and its soul is cavolo nero, the long, dark, blistered Tuscan kale. The dish was born of thrift: a vegetable and bean soup made one day, then the next day reboiled with stale, saltless Tuscan bread layered through it until it thickened into something between a soup and a stew, dense enough to eat with a fork. The kale is essential and structural, not a garnish; cavolo nero, harvested sweeter after the first frost, gives the soup its dark colour, its faintly bitter depth, and its body, and Tuscans hold that ribollita is only truly itself when made with it. Around the kale go the cannellini beans that earned the Tuscans their teasing nickname of mangiafagioli, 'bean-eaters', a soffritto of onion, carrot, and celery, a little tomato, and the day-old bread. The whole is bound together over two days and two boilings and finished, always, with a generous spiral of new-pressed Tuscan olive oil poured over each bowl at the table. Humble in every ingredient and magnificent in the sum, ribollita is the very definition of the cucina povera, the cooking that makes a feast of bread, beans, and a dark winter leaf.

Ingredients

The Soup

  • 1 large bunch cavolo nero (Tuscan kale), about 300g, stems removed, leaves roughly chopped
  • 400 g cooked cannellini beans (or 1 tin, drained), plus their liquid
  • 200 g tinned chopped tomatoes
  • 0.25 Savoy cabbage, shredded (optional, traditional addition)
  • 1.2 litres vegetable stock or water
  • 250 g stale country bread (saltless Tuscan bread ideally), torn into chunks
  • salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Soffritto

  • 1 onion, finely chopped
  • 1 carrot, finely chopped
  • 2 stalks celery, finely chopped
  • 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
  • 5 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil, plus more to finish

Method

  1. Warm the olive oil in a large heavy pot over medium-low heat. Add the onion, carrot, and celery and sweat gently for 10 to 12 minutes until soft and sweet. Add the garlic and cook for a further minute.
  2. Add the tomatoes and cook for 5 minutes. Add the cavolo nero and the optional Savoy cabbage and stir until wilted down.
  3. Add half the beans whole and mash the other half to a rough purée, then stir both into the pot with the stock and the bean liquid. Season, bring to a simmer, and cook gently for 40 minutes.
  4. Stir in the torn stale bread and simmer for a further 15 to 20 minutes, breaking the bread down with a spoon, until the soup is very thick. Take off the heat, cover, and leave to stand; ideally cool completely and refrigerate overnight.
  5. The next day, reboil the soup gently, loosening with a little water if needed, until piping hot. It should be dense, not soupy. Ladle into bowls and finish each with a generous spiral of new olive oil and a grind of black pepper.

Notes

Cavolo nero (Tuscan kale, also sold as black kale, lacinato, or dinosaur kale) is the authentic and structural green; curly kale will do at a pinch but lacks its depth. Saltless Tuscan bread is traditional, but any dense, stale country sourdough works; do not use soft sliced bread, which turns to paste. Ribollita is famously better on the second and third day. For a vegan version, simply use water or vegetable stock and good olive oil throughout, as the classic recipe is already meat-free.

The Gastrographer

The Gastrographer

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Ingredient originTrade or transit route
Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control
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