Ribollita

Ribollita is a thick Tuscan stew – dark greens, lots of beans, greens, olive oil, thickened with yesterday’s bread. It’s hearty, filling, endlessly nutritious and easy, the kind of food I crave. The amount of kale you toss into each pot is impressive, and will have you patting yourself on the back before, during, and after your meal. Here are the details – it’s a soup I make all the time this time of year.

I should mention that ribollita is one of those things where there are as many ways to make it as there are cooks. I usually use whole canned tomatoes this time of year – shredded. But had mashed tomatoes on hand, and they worked out just fine. You can use canned beans, cooked from dried beans, or cooked beans that you’ve frozen and thawed. As far as guidelines go? Your ribollita should be thick – after all. A sloppy sounding bread stew. Use stale bread by the day, preferably a rustic loaf that’s cut (or torn) into large chunks. The bread absorbs the broth and simmers into nicely plump zones of pillowy dumplings.

Ribollita linkages

This isn’t a difficult soup to make, although it does require a bit of chopping up. If you’re looking for a few ways to save some prep time. Use canned beans and buy pre-washed and chopped kale. Also keep in mind that this recipe makes for one large pot of soup. Enough for a few days of leftovers or more depending on the size of your family.

Ribollita Adjustments

There are a lot! In addition to the tweaks mentioned above, I suspect some of you will want to know how to do GF. Yes, you absolutely can make it without the bread. It’s not the same stew and not really Ribollita, but it’s wonderful nonetheless. Increase the amount of beans you use (both whole and mashed). I also switched to replacing 1 cup of the kidney beans with 1 cup of uncooked French lentils (with the tomatoes added). Once the lentils are fully cooked, proceed to add the kale, beans, etc.

toppings!

I like to add a bit of lemon zest to each bowl for a bit of brightness and because I can’t help it. And I also like the saltiness of some olives alongside the kale, so that’s a bit of a bonus too. I’ll also drizzle over a little diluted pesto if I have it on hand, or an herb oil made by blending together olive oil, a few cloves of garlic, parsley, and marjoram. This bowl was topped with a shallot and chili oil.

Freezer friendly Ribollita

This is an excellent freezer-safe stew. I like to make an extra large pot out of this, let it cool and transfer to freezer safe containers. It’s good frozen for a month or so. Knowing that it’s a pot that’s mainly for the freezer, I’m sometimes hesitant to add the bread. I’ll add it when I reheat later. But really, you can do it either way.

I hope you love this and I hope you make it. It has all the good stuff in one pot. I like to do that when I feel like I need a little reboot.

This is the right place if you are looking for more soup recipes and I am I added this recipe to my list of favorites beans recipesso be sure to check it out if you’re looking for more bean-centric inspiration. Enjoy! -H

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