HOW TO MAKE A RIBOLLITA – TUSCAN TRADITIONAL SOUP – Best one pot vegan Italian recipe

RIBOLLITA is a traditional Tuscan countryside dish made out of what the land can offer. Ribollita means boiled twice, in fact this soup when reheated gets even better.
There is not an established recipe even if Cavolo Nero and beans are essential ingredients. Other greens may change according to what is available or the part of Tuscany.

Ingredients:

250 gr/ 1 1/2 cups of dry cannellini beans or (or 1 can of cannellini beans and 2 to 3 pints of vegetable stock)
1 onion
2 celery stalks
4 potatoes
3 small carrots
500 gr/ 1 lb cavolo nero or kale
500 gr/ 1 lb swiss Chard
1 medium savoy Cabbage
3 tbsp tomato paste
A couple of spring onions

EV Olive oil
Thyme
1 Rosemary stalk
10 slices of bread – stale bread

Salt and pepper to season

First thing is to prepare the beans.

Soak the beans overnight, then throw away the water, rinsed them, put them in a saucepan filled with 2 lt / 3 1/2 pints of water, cover and put on a low heat when it reaches the boil cook them for 70 minutes (or follow the producer’s instructions ).
Set aside

Now prepare the greens
Remove the hard stalks from the cavolo nero leaves and chop the leaves
Also chop the savoy cabbage and the swiss chard.
One trick to add extra flavour is to use the soft green top of the spring onions, which we are going to add to the greens
Rinse all the greens and put them all together in a bowl

“Soffrittino”. This is a base for many Italian recipe. In this case chop the onion and the celery coarsely
In a large saucepan cover the bottom with 4 tbsps of EV Olive Oil. On a medium heat after a couple of minutes add the chopped onion and celery. Sizzle for 4/5 minutes making sure that it does not burn.
Add all the greens. After a few minutes the heat will start reducing their volume. Stir them with a wooden spoon making sure they do not stick to the bottom. After 10 minutes add the tomato paste and a pint of water.
Stir again and put the lid back on the top. Cook it for another 50 minutes for a total of 1 hour. Every 10 minutes stir it.

In the meantime blend 3/4 of the beans and keep the rest whole. I use a mill but any blender will do.
Add the blended beans to 2/3 of the beans water. Save the rest of the bean water.
When the greens have been cooking for 1 hour as said before, add the mix of blended beans and beans water.
Simmer for another half an hour, stirring every ten minutes, making sure it does not stick. Add some more bean water if necessary. Before completion check that the salt is fine. Add some extra ground pepper if you like it.
When ready, in a large bowl put a couple of ladles of the soup and cover it with a layer of sliced bread.
Cover it with more soup and then another layer of sliced bread. In total make 3 to 4 layers of bread and cover well completely with the soup.
Let it rest for a t least 3 hours.
In the meantime chop 1 or 2 spring onions.
After 3 hours you can prepare the Ribollita to be served.
In a shallow pan pour tbsp of EV olive oil. After a minute on a warm stove, add the required amount of soup in the pan, generally 1 large ladle per person. Stir it with a wooden spoon while on the stove. Add a cup of beans water. The consistency should not be watery but thick.
Serve hot, sprinkled with EV Olive oil, the chopped spring onions and extra ground pepper if preferred.