RIBOLLITA (TUSCAN SOUP)

Ingredients · Dried cannellini beans: 2.8 cups (350 g)
· Il Cavallino Traditional Extra virgin olive oil: 1 ½ tbsp (20 g)
· Garlic: 1 clove
· Rosemary: 1 sprig
· Water: 8 ½ cups (2 l)
· Fine salt: to taste
· Black pepper: to taste

FOR THE SOUP
· Verza (savoy cabbage): 2 cups (250 g)
· Italian kale (cavolo nero): 2.7 cups (300 g)
· Chard: 2.7 cups (300 g)
· Stale bread: 0.45 lb (220 g)
· Il Cavallino traditional Extra virgin olive oil: 25 (25 g)
· Peeled tomatoes: 1 cup (180 g)
· Potatoes: 1
· Onions: 0.6 cup (80 g)
· Carrots: 0.6 cup (80 g)
· Celery: ½ cup (100 g)
· Black pepper: to taste
· Fine salt: to taste
· Peperoncino: to taste - dry
· Thyme: to taste - fresh

Preparation To prepare the ribollita, start by cooking the cannellini beans, first soaking them in a bowl full of water for at least one night, preferably for 24 hours. After this time, heat the olive oil with the garlic clove and rosemary sprig in a large, high-sided pan, then add the beans drained from the soaking water, cover with water 4 and cook for 1 hour over medium-low heat with the lid. After add pepper and salt (salt is best added at the end otherwise it would harden the beans if used too early). Remove the rosemary sprig, take a part of the beans and keep them aside because they will have to be added whole at the end.

Blend everything with a hand blender to obtain a broth to cook the soup in. Now prepare the sauté: peel the onion and chop it finely, wash the celery and reduce it to a finely chopped mixture.

Next, peel the carrot and reduce it to small cubes. In a pan heat 1.8 tbsp (25 g) of olive oil and fry the onion, celery, and chopped carrots over a moderate heat. While the sauté lightly fries, peel the potato and dice it.

Add the potato cubes to the sauté and continue cooking. While the potato is cooking, pour the peeled tomatoes into a bowl and crush them with a fork, then add them to the vegetables in the pan.

While continuing the cooking , clean the leafy vegetables: divide the cabbage in half, remove the white core, and then cut it into long thin strips, wash and coarsely cut the chard.

Lastly, wash and cut the Italian kale (cavolo nero) leaves. Add the cabbage, chard and Italian kale to the soup.
Now pour the bean broth you blended, stir, cover with a lid and bring to a boil. When the soup boils, remove the lid and cook for another 45 minutes, stirring occasionally.
When the soup is ready, add salt and pepper, add the whole beans you set aside, stir and turn off the heat.

Cut the stale bread into coarse slices, lay a few slices on the bottom of a bowl or soup tureen, cover with a couple of ladles of soup, then lay another layer of bread and add more soup, continue alternating the layers until you finish the ingredients. Allow to cool at room temperature and then place in the refrigerator covered with plastic wrap for at least 2 hours.

After this time has passed, the bread will have absorbed the soup and the ribollita will have a semi-solid appearance. Pour it into a pan, bring it to a boil, and flavor it with chili pepper  and thyme leaves. Your ribollita is ready to be enjoyed with a drizzle of oil Il Cavallino Traditional.