Ribollita
“Tuscan cuisine is famous for giving new life to leftovers. This dish is a perfect example. An icon of Tuscan cuisine, ribollita literally means ‘reboiled’. It’s difficult to find an authentic ribolitta because it takes three days to prepare. Minestrone is made the first day and eaten as is. The second day the leftover soup is layered with thin slices of bread (or toasted bread rubbed with garlic) and baked with thin slices of red onion on top. The third day the leftovers are reboiled.
Recipes for minestrone vary from region to region, restaurant to restaurant and household to household. Most recipes are based upon regional produce. The most important ingredient in Tuscan minestrone is cavolo nero or a winter black cabbage. Its leaves range in colour from dark green to almost black. If you cannot find black cabbage, substitute kale, chard or use only Savoy cabbage.
Ingredients
- 4 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 red onion, chopped
- 1 leek, white part only, chopped
- 1 garlic clove, chopped
- 4 carrots, sliced into centimetre clices
- 4 zucchini, sliced into half-inch rounds
- One-quarter whole Savoy cabbage, shredded and chopped
- 1 bunch cavolo nero or kale – if you cannot find this, use any dark green leaf
- 1 small bunch spinach, shredded and chopped
- 4 potatoes, peeled and cut into centimetre cubes
- 200g green beans, cut into bite-size pieces
- 2 x 400g tins Tuscan cannellini beans, one-half tin pureed and one-half tin whole
- salt to taste
- 4 tablespoons tomato puree
- 500g stale Italian bread – this traditionally was unsalted Tuscan bread – you can use ciabatta.
Method
Heat the olive oil in a large pot and sauté the onion and leek together over low heat until they begin to burn slightly. Add the garlic and sauté for 1 minute. Add all the remaining vegetables. Season with sea salt and stir to mix in the onions and leeks evenly. Cover and cook for 20 minutes or until the vegetables have reduced in volume by half. Stir again and cover with water to the top of the pot. The more water you add, the more broth you will have with the soup. Bring to a boil and then lower the heat. Add the tomato paste and stir to dissolve. Cover and cook the soup for 1 hour. Add the Tuscan beans.
This is the minestrone soup. The next day layer the soup in a deep baking dish with the stale bread and bake. Top with thinly sliced red onions before baking.
The next day, if there’s any soup left over, reboil the soup, stirring well to break up the bread slices. The soup should be thick enough to eat with a fork! It’s served with the traditional drizzle of extra virgin olive oil on top (please, only of decent quality).