recipe request - la ribollita? Rice, Pasta and Vegetables Discuss recipe request - la ribollita? in the Brick Oven Cooking forums; Hi all, Does anyone have a great recipe for La Ribollita? (tuscan bean + cabbage soup). I've been wanting to ...

[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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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