Ribollita

thick Tuscan bread soup, better the next day

Prep
20 min
Cook
1h 10m
Total
1h 30m
Serves
6
Difficulty
Easy
Rating
4.7 / 5 (143 ratings)

Ribollita means reboiled. You make a bread soup, let it sit, then fry it back up the next day in olive oil until it crisps on the outside. Most people eat it the same day and it's good. Eaten cold from the fridge the morning after and then re-heated in a pan with more oil, it's better. The bread breaks down completely. That's the point.

Ingredients

For 6 servings.

The soup

  • 400 g cavolo nero (black kale), stems removed (savoy cabbage works but gives a milder result)
  • 600 g cannellini beans, cooked (or 2 x 400g tins, drained and rinsed)
  • 400 g canned whole tomatoes
  • 2 medium starchy potatoes
  • 2 pcs carrots
  • 3 pcs celery stalks
  • 1 large white onion
  • 3 cloves garlic
  • 60 ml extra virgin olive oil
  • 3 sprigs fresh thyme
  • 1500 ml water or vegetable stock
  • to taste salt and black pepper

To finish

  • 300 g stale country bread, thick slices (2-3 days old) (fresh bread turns to glue. It needs to be genuinely stale.)
  • to taste extra virgin olive oil, to drizzle

Method

  1. 1. Soffritto

    Dice the onion, carrot and celery finely. Warm the oil in a large heavy pot over medium heat and cook them for 12-15 minutes until soft and starting to turn golden at the edges. Add the garlic and cook for another minute.

  2. 2. Add tomatoes and potatoes

    Peel and dice the potatoes into rough 2cm chunks. Add them to the pot with the tomatoes, crushing them as they go in. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

  3. 3. Beans and stock

    Add about two-thirds of the beans plus all the stock or water. Bring to a boil, reduce to a steady simmer. After 20 minutes, remove about half the beans and some liquid and blend them together until smooth. Return the puree to the pot. This is what makes ribollita thick.

  4. 4. Add the kale

    Strip the cavolo nero leaves from the stems and chop them roughly. Add to the pot with the thyme. Stir in the remaining whole beans. Simmer for another 20-25 minutes until the kale is very tender, not just wilted.

    Cavolo nero takes longer than you think. It needs real cooking, not a quick wilt.

  5. 5. Add the bread

    Layer the bread slices over the top of the soup and stir them in. Simmer for another 10 minutes, stirring now and then, until the bread has broken down into the soup and the whole thing is very thick. Season well.

    It should be closer to a porridge than a soup by the end. If it's still liquid, keep going.

  6. 6. Serve (or rest)

    Ladle into bowls and drizzle generously with your best olive oil. Or, let it cool completely, refrigerate overnight, and fry portions in a heavy pan with olive oil the next day until a crust forms on the outside. That's the ribollita part.

Nutrition per serving

  • 360 kcal
  • Protein: 14g
  • Carbs: 54g
  • Fat: 10g

A bit of history

Ribollita is a Tuscan peasant soup built on the principle of using everything twice. The bread that's gone stale and the leftover bean soup from the day before become something better together than either was on its own. The re-frying stage, which gives the dish its name, was probably born out of necessity before it became a preference.

It's part of a family of Tuscan bread soups that includes acquacotta (cooked water) and pappa al pomodoro (bread and tomato). All three rely on stale bread as a thickener and a base, and all three are better the day after you make them.