Tuscan Ribollita is made with stale Tuscan bread, cannellini beans, Tuscan kale, Savoy cabbage, Swiss chard and other vegetables. After resting overnight, it returns to the heat for the second cooking that gives the dish its name.
The night before, place the cannellini beans in a large bowl and cover generously with cold water. Leave them to soak for 12 hours.
Drain and rinse the cannellini beans, transfer them to a pot and cover generously with cold water. Slowly bring to a boil, then cook gently for about 1 hour, or until tender.
Do not discard the cooking water: we will use it to make the Ribollita.
Peel the potatoes and cut them into pieces about 2 cm across. Prepare the Tuscan kale by removing the toughest parts of the central stems, then cut the leaves into strips.
Remove the tough core from the Savoy cabbage and cut the leaves into strips. Wash the Swiss chard, trim only the toughest ends of the stalks, then cut both the leaves and tender stalks into strips. Finally, slice the onions, carrots and celery.
Pour a little extra virgin olive oil into a large casserole. Add the onions, carrots and celery and cook gently until softened, without letting them brown.
Add the peeled tomatoes, breaking them up as needed, and stir.
Add the Tuscan kale, Savoy cabbage, Swiss chard and potatoes. Stir well and let the vegetables begin to soften and reduce in volume.
Take a little more than half of the beans and pass them through a food mill or sieve with some of their cooking water. Alternatively, use an immersion blender, adding a little cooking water to obtain a pourable purée.
Add the bean purée to the casserole and stir. Pour in enough additional bean cooking water to allow the vegetables to cook without drying out.
Cook over low heat for about 1 hour, stirring occasionally. If the soup becomes too dry during cooking, add a little of the reserved bean cooking water at a time.
Towards the end of cooking, add the remaining whole cannellini beans and season with salt and black pepper.
Arrange a layer of stale Tuscan bread in the bottom of a large serving bowl. Pour over half of the soup, add another layer of bread and finish with the remaining soup.
Leave it to cool slightly, then cover and refrigerate until the following day. As it rests, the bread will absorb the soup and become completely soft.
The following day, transfer everything to a large casserole. Add a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and heat slowly, stirring from the bottom to combine the softened bread with the vegetables and beans.
Once the Ribollita returns to a boil, cook for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent it from sticking.
Spoon the Ribollita into bowls while still piping hot. Finish with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and freshly ground black pepper.
Servings 6
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily value may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs.
Ribollita takes time mainly because the cannellini beans need to soak and the soup needs to rest with the bread. Plan to start at least a day ahead. After soaking, cook the beans until tender but not falling apart and keep their cooking water: you will need it both to purée some of the beans and to adjust the consistency of the soup.
Stale, unsalted Tuscan bread is the traditional choice. If you cannot find it, use a rustic bread with a firm crumb, preferably low in salt and at least a couple of days old. Avoid sandwich bread, very soft rolls and enriched breads: once soaked, they will not give the Ribollita the same texture.
During the long cooking of the vegetables, add the bean cooking water gradually. Before the resting stage, the soup needs enough liquid for the bread to absorb, but it should not become brothy.
The following day, the Ribollita will be considerably thicker. Reheat it gently and stir frequently from the bottom. If it has become too dry, add a very small amount of hot water at a time. The finished Ribollita should remain thick, with the bread completely incorporated into the soup.
The registered recipe calls for a little more than half of the cannellini beans to be passed through a sieve. A food mill is a practical alternative; if you do not have one, an immersion blender also works. Add only enough cooking water to produce a pourable purée.
In 1891, Pellegrino Artusi published Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well. Recipe no. 58 is a “Tuscan lean peasant-style soup” (Zuppa toscana di magro alla contadina) that looks remarkably familiar today: white beans, Tuscan kale, cabbage or Savoy cabbage, Swiss chard, potato and stale bread.
As he often does, Artusi has something to say beyond the recipe itself. The rather humble name seems to amuse him, and he remarks that although the soup calls itself “peasant-style”, he is certain everyone, even gentlemen, will enjoy it if it is prepared with due care.
The word Ribollita does not appear. Trying to pin down an exact birth date for the dish quickly becomes difficult anyway. Much earlier, in seventeenth-century Florence, Giovanni Del Turco had already written about a soup of onions and cabbage poured over slices of bread. The recipes are not the same, but bread and cooked vegetables had been sharing the same bowl long before anyone committed a recipe called Ribollita to paper.
The story takes an unusual turn in 2001. The Florence Delegation of the Italian Academy of Cuisine researched Ribollita in Florentine trattorias, compared different preparations and, on 24 May, registered a recipe with a notarial deed.
It includes cannellini beans, Tuscan kale, Savoy cabbage, Swiss chard, potatoes, tomatoes, onions, carrots, celery and stale bread. This is the recipe we have chosen as the reference for our version.
Of course, Tuscan families were cooking Ribollita long before a notary became involved. Florence remains the place most closely associated with the dish, while bread soup and related preparations also belong to the tables of other parts of central Tuscany. A home-cooked dish was never likely to emerge from every kitchen in exactly the same way.
Extra virgin olive oil and black pepper are the more familiar finishing touches. But in Tuscany you may also find fresh raw onion served alongside Ribollita.
Slice it and add a little directly to the bowl. Against the hot, soft and very thick soup, the onion stays crisp and decidedly pungent.
It is not exactly a subtle addition. For those who love it, that is probably the point.