recipe request - la ribollita?

[Tim F]

Hi all,

Does anyone have a great recipe for La Ribollita? (tuscan bean + cabbage soup). I've been wanting to give it a try I have googled up a few decent versions but would love to hear if anyone has experience with a particularly good one.

[james]

Re: recipe request - la ribollita?

Great call. Ribollita is one of my favorites.

I have the Silver Spoon cookbook (all 1263 pages of it), the first English translation of the original 1950 classic Italian cookbook.

To summarize:
1/4 cup olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
1 carrot
1 onion
1 celery stalk
3 fresh or canned peeled tomatoes
1 sprig thyme
2 potatoes, diced
7 1/2 cups cavolo nera (dark Tuscan cabbage)
1 cup white beans
4 slices Tuscan bread (preferably stale)

Saute the vegetables until soft, add the tomatoes, thyme and potatoes and cook a little more, add the cabbage, beans and 9 cups of water. Bring to boil, lower and simmer covered for two hours. Put the bread in the bottom of a bowl, and add the soup. Drizzle with olive oil.

For fun, you can toast the bread, and grate garlic across it before ladling the soup. You can also beat up the bread before you serve it, so that the soup itself is thickened with the bread.

Memories!
James

[DrakeRemoray]

Re: recipe request - la ribollita?

I can highly recommend the silver spoon cookbook. It is art! It also (of course) has great recipes, though I have not made the ribolita.

Amazon.com: The Silver Spoon: Phaidon Press: Books

Ribolita brings to mind having dinner at "Il Latini" in Florence (some call it a tourist trap but the food was good). My sister had the Riboita for an appetizer and when the waiter came around to ask about the main course, she said "I'm so full, I'm so full, I'm so full...I'll have the lamb"

Drake

[Tim F]

Re: recipe request - la ribollita?

Thanks for the recipe and link! I made something very similar to that recipe in the end, with the addition of leeks and zucchini, plus I added some blended beans to thicken instead of bread. Yum!

[texassourdough]

Re: recipe request - la ribollita?

Hi James!

What are you using in the place of the Tuscan cabbage - or can you get it out there in California? Do you have a good substitute?

Sounds good!
Jay

[texassourdough]

Re: recipe request - la ribollita?

A bit of research suggests that curly kale is a good replacement for cavalo nero (Tuscan cabbage). As an aside...I bought The Silver Spoon on Amazon for about $25. It is amazing and has recipes for just about everything. A stimulating food read. I look forward to trying the ribollita!
Jay

[Stan]

Re: recipe request - la ribollita?

Just remember that ribollita is more of an idea that a recipe. It translates as "reboiled," and it's the parsimonious Tuscan kitchen's way of recycling the week's vegetables. You'll have to have beans (it is from Tuscany, after all), but the cavalo nero is totally optional. I've done it with Swiss chard and even with no greens at all. The important thing is to thicken it with stale bread. All the ribollite I've ever had were more like thick bready vegetable stews than 'soups.'

Stan

[Irenes]

Re: recipe request - la ribollita?

To go along with what Stan noted, the original ribollita was made from leftover minestrone soup. I find stale bread to go well with most "recycled" soup leftovers. The grainier the bread, the better.

[Stan]

Re: recipe request - la ribollita?

My wife and I did a ribollita for her family on New Years Day. We cooked various veggies in olive oil and salt until they gave up some liquid, and then we added stock and beans (no greens this time). After the whole thing had bubbled and mingled for a few hours, I added stale pane toscano (from my WFO, of course!) in large pieces. We cooked on low until the bread had mostly broken up and made a thick stew out of the soup. Served with some olio nuovo from the November 2009 pressing. Fantastic.

Happy New Year!
Stan