Ribollita

Ribollita is arguably the soup of the Tuscan winter.  It's the winter version of the Tuscan Ur-Soup: stale bread with stuff.  In this case, sofrito, kale, tomatoes and beans (at a minimum).  Feels a bit weird talking about it now, after a week of sunny weather in the new month of April, but we actually made this and took all the pictures when it was dark and cold, started a post then failed to finish it for, well, a while.

Red Onions are the heart of the Sofrito

The preparation is simple-ish but comes in several parts:  First, soak then boil beans, not skimping on the water.  Any liquid left after the beans finish cooking will go in the soup.

Sofrito

 Second, make a sofrito of (at a minimum) red onions, carrots, celery and parsley.  I also put in garlic, rosemary, thyme and beatola stems (which is a green rather like swisschard and frequently, but not even close to always used in ribollita recipes).

Beatola, stems chopped

After the onions and carrots have softened add tomatoes (one can of whole tomatoes, in this case) and chopped kale and beatola leaves (at about 2 to 1, or use only the kale) and simmer until the greans cook down. 

Sofrito with greens and tomatoes

Next, cut your nice stale Tuscan (saltless) bread into moderately small chunks and smash up some (recipes give ranges between 20-80%, around half or when your arm gets tired seems safe) of the beans with the back of a wooden spoon.  Or, if you have a food processor, make them into a nice paste.  Then layer everything into a large pot: bread, sofrito, beans, repeat.  That's how we did it anyway (on the advice of one of my Italian teachers).  Based on that experience I'd recommend not using bread as the bottom layer.  After the layering is done pour in the rest of the water from cooking the beans (augmented by more water as needed) until all the solids are covered.

Everything layered together in the pot

Cook for a good long time, topping up with water when it needs it.  This is one of those soups (ok, as solidity goes it's defiantly on the stew side of life) that can be reheated, or had cold and just gets better with age, but for the first day an few hours will do just fine, especially since everything has already been cooked.  Add salt and pepper to taste, then served drizzled with olive oil.

Ribollita