Ribollita
A soup from humble beginnings now takes centre stage.
First documented in 1910, ribollita is a Tuscan bread soup that was originally considered "peasant food"—the term ribollita literally translates as reboiled due to the fact large batches of this soup were made and reheated.
However, despite its humble beginnings the comforting and warming nature of this dish meant it soon became popular through out Italy.
This dish is perfect for using an assortment of seasonal veg in a delicious, zero waste way, as well as breathing a new lease of life into stale bread.
Brighten up those winter days and make this recipe next time you need transporting to the hills of Tuscany.
Here's the method:
Serves 4
- To make the garlic croutons tear your stale bread into bite sizes pieces.
- Grate over 1 clove of garlic then toss in extra virgin olive oil, with a pinch of salt.
- Bake at 170°C until evenly golden (about 30 minutes).
- Dice your onion, celery and carrots then sweat down in olive oil with a generous pinch of salt.
- Once soft finely chop 7 garlic cloves and add to the pan, return to the heat and cook for a few more minutes.
- The add your bay leaves, thyme, dried mushrooms, tomatoes, nutritional yeast, stock and cracked black pepper.
- Return to the heat and simmer for 20 minutes.
- Wash and roughly chop your kale and drain and rinse your cannellini beans. Remove the bay leaves and thyme branches then add the kale and beans to the soup and continue to cook for a further 10 minutes.
- Once your kale is cooked remove from the heat and add your zero waste croutons. Along with a generous glug of citizens of soil olive oil.
- Once the bead is soft, serve up with a drizzle of jewels of olive oil.
Recommendations:
You can use any of our EVOOs for this dish, but for the perfect pairing we recommend our Italian Extra Rare—this robust oil sings in hearty bean dishes, such as this one.
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