Italian cuisine abounds with vegetables soups, but for me perhaps the most delicious of all is the Tuscan classic called ribollita. It gets its name—which means ‘re-boiled’—from the fact that the soup is made ahead, layered with bread in a casserole (preferably made of terracotta), left to rest for at least a few hours and reheated just before serving.
The soup veritably sings Tuscany with its red onion, Tuscan kale and cannellinii beans—and sometimes leeks—all vegetables that typify Tuscan cookery. But it’s the bread that sets ribollita apart from other minestrone type soups. It lends a hard to describe delicate flavor and creamy texture that, at least me, is out of this world delicious.
Thick and hearty but not at all heavy, for me this classic cold weather dish is actually most appealing when the weather is chilly but not freezing cold. A bit like this time of year where I live. And unless you opt to add some pancetta to the flavor base, it’s totally meatless, which also makes it a toothsome choice for those who are observing the Lenten fast.
Ingredients
Serves 4-6
For the flavor base:
- Olive oil
- 1 large red onion, cut into large dice
- 1-2 carrots, cut into large dic or slices
- 1-2 stalks celery, cut into large dice
- 1 leek, washed, trimmed and sliced crosswise (optional)
- 1 thick slice of pancetta, cut into cubes (optional)
More vegetables:
- 1 bunch black kale (aka lucinato kale), stemmed and shredded
- ½ head of Savoy cabbage, shredded
- 1 Tb tomato paste, or a few canned tomatoes, finely chopped
- 250g (1/2 lb.) potato
- 300g (10 oz.) boiled or canned cannellini beans, drained
For the final assembly:
- Slices of well-structured bread (preferably saltless Tuscan bread)
To finish:
- Best-quality, fruity olive oil
- Freshly ground black pepper (optional)
Directions
Make the vegetable soup
In a large pot, sauté the onion, celery and carrot in abundant olive oil over gentle heat until soft, along with the pancetta and leeks if using. Salt the aromatics lightly as you sauté them. And make sure they don’t brown.
Now add the shredded Tuscan kale and stir. Let it simmer with the aromatics for a minute or two. Do the same with the Savoy cabbage.
Add enough water (or broth) to just cover all the vegetables, allong with the potatoes. Stir in the tomato paste (or puréed tomatoes). Raise the heat to medium and simmer the vegetables until tender, about 45-60 minutes.
Take half your cannellini beans and purée them with some of the their cooking liquid. (If using canned beans, use water.) Add the purée to the soup along with the rest of the beans. Simmer for another 15 minutes or so.
By the end of its simmer, the soup should be quite thick but still have ample liquid. Top it up with water or broth from time to time if and when needed.
Assembling and resting your ribollita
When the soup is done, you can start to assemble the final dish. Place bread slices at the bottom of a a good sized casserole, preferably of terracotta.
Then ladle over the soup to cover.
Then lay more slices of bread on top.
Then ladle over more soup to cover the bread. If need be, continue layering bread and soup until you have either filled the pot or used up your ingredients. Make sure to end with a layer of soup.
Let the soup rest for several hours or overnight.
“Reboiling”
Now here’s the part that gives ribollita its name:
When you are read to eat, gently re-heat the soup. As the soup heats up, add a glassful of water and stir with a wooden spoon. This will break up the bread and mix it in with the rest of the ingredients. Taste and adjust for seasoning.
The result should be quite thick, almost more a stew than a proper soup. Nevertheless, you may need to add additional water or broth as you stir to loosen the soup a bit and prevent scorching.
Serve your ribollita while still nice and warm, drizzled on top with a drizzle of olive oil and, if you like, some freshly ground black pepper.
Notes
Like all minestrone type soups, ribollita is a fairly easy dish to make despite the lengthy multiple step recipe. It only requires a little patience and basic knife skills. For detailed cooking tips, I’d refer you to our master recipe for making minestrone. But here are a few points to bear in mind specifically when makng ribollita:
The vegetables
The number or types of vegetables that go into a ribollita vary quite a bit from recipe to recipe. But the two essential ingredients—typically Tuscan—are the cannellini beans and the cavolo nero, or Tuscan kale, also marketed as Black, Lucinato or Dinosaur kale.
Beans
The beans should be precooked. I usually simmer them with a drizzle of oil, a garlic clove and a sprig of sage until they are just slightly underdone, since they will cook further after they’re added to the soup. I don’t always soak my cannellini beans but doing so will cut down on your cooking time. Or use a pressure cooker. Usually 6 minutes or so under high pressure should do the trick.
If you can’t find cannellini, another small white bean can substitute. As can canned cannellini, which at least where I live are easy to find. As regular readers know, I won’t judge you. Just be sure to rinse them well, since the canning liquid lends an off taste.
Tuscan kale
When I first moved back to the US, it was impossible to find Tuscan kale, but I now find Tuscan kale at my many, if not all, local supermarkets in my area. Tuscan kale has long slender leaves. They are much more tender and have a more subtle taste than other sorts of kale. For prep, you need only remove their stems, which can be very tough, then roll them up and cut them crosswise into strips.
Other vegetables
Another typically Tuscan touch is the use of red onion, which the locals (like their southern cousins in Calabria) prefer. But of course yellow or white onions will do if you don’t have red onions to hand.
Other leafy greens, like the Savoy cabbage or Swiss chard add a pleasing variety to your ribollita. Tuscan food blogger Giuliana Scarpaleggia of Juls Kitchen adds Tuscan kale, Savoy cabbage and green cabbage to her ribollita. But you can omit these additional vegetables if you want. Ditto for adding leek, another vegetable used more frequently in Tuscany elsewhere in Italy, to the flavor base.
The bread
The choice of bread for your ribollita is of the utmost importance. Tuscan bread is, of course, the best choice.
If you can’t find Tuscan bread in stores, you can make a fairly decent simulcrum at home by using our recipe for pane casereccio (Italian homemade bread) baked in a Dutch oven. But you’ll need to make a few adjustments to account for the special characteristics of Tuscan bread.
Tuscan bread is famously saltless, so omit the salt. Tuscan bread also has a tigher crumb than a typical pane casereccio, so use only enough water to form a proper dough. It also has a lighter crust, so only remove the cover of your Dutch oven for the last 5 minutes or so.
If you don’t care to make your own Tuscan bread, feel free to substitute any well-structured bread that will stand up to cooking, although I would avoid sour-dough; it has too strong a taste. And above all, avoid sandwich breads, which will turn to mush and give your ribollita an uncharacteristic texture.
The bread should be at least a day old. Day old bread is slightly drier so it absorbs more of the soup and its wonderful flavors. If your bread is good and stale, make your soup quite brothy to compensate. And the staler the bread, the longer you should rest your soup before re-heating it.
Making ribollita ahead
Ribollita is one of those dishes you not just can but should make ahead, as indicated in the recipe.
Ribollita is best when it is assembled and left to rest overnight. That said, you can make it in the morning for dinner or even an hour or two before. But the longer it sits, the better.
Ribollita
Ingredients
For the flavor base:
- Olive oil
- 1 large red onion cut into large dice
- 1-2 carrots cut into large dic or slices
- 1-2 stalks celery cut into large dice
- 1 leek washed, trimmed and sliced crosswise (optional)
- 1 thick slice of pancetta cut into cubes (optional)
More vegetables:
- 1 bunch black kale aka lucinato kale, stemmed and shredded
- ½ head of Savoy cabbage shredded
- 1 Tb tomato paste or a few canned tomatoes, finely chopped
- 250 g (1/2 lb). potato
- 300 g (10 oz). boiled or canned cannellini beans, drained
For the final assembly:
- slices of well-structured bread preferably saltless Tuscan bread
To finish:
- Best-quality fruity olive oil
- Freshly ground black pepper optional
Instructions
Make the vegetable soup
- In a large pot, sauté the onion, celery and carrot in abundant olive oil over gentle heat until soft, along with the pancetta and leeks if using. Salt the aromatics lightly as you sauté them. And make sure they don’t brown.
- Now add the shredded Tuscan kale and stir. Let it simmer with the aromatics for a minute or two. Then add the Savoy cabbage and do the same.
- Add enough water (or broth) to just cover all the vegetables, allong with the potatoes. Stir in the tomato paste (or puréed tomatoes). Raise the heat to medium and simmer the vegetables until tender, about 45-60 minutes.
- Take half your cannellini beans and purée them with some of the their cooking liquid. (If using canned beans, use water.) Add the purée to the soup along with the rest of the beans. Simmer for another 15 minutes or so.
- By the end of its simmer, the soup shoudl be quite thick but stilll have ample liquid. Top it up with water or broth from time to time if and when needed.
Assembling and resting your ribollita
- When the soup is done, you can start to assemble the final dish. Place bread slices at the bottom of a a good sized casserole, preferably of terracotta.
- Then ladle over the soup to cover.
- Then lay more slices of bread on top of the soup.
- Then ladle over more soup to cover the bread. If need be, continue layering bread and soup until you have either filled the pot or used up your ingredients. Make sure to end with a layer of soup.
- Let the soup rest for several hours or overnight.
“Reboiling”
- Now here’s the part that gives ribollita its name:
- When you are read to eat, gently re-heat the soup. As the soup heats up, add a glassful of water and mix it up with a wooden spoon, which will break up the bread and mix it in with the rest of the ingredients. Taste and adjust for seasoning.
- The result should be quite thick, almost more a stew than a proper soup. Nevertheless, you may need to add additional water or broth as you mix to loosen the soup a bit and prevent scorching.
- Serve your ribollita while still nice and warm, drizzled on top with a drizzle of oilve oil and, if you like, some freshly ground black pepper.
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As soon as we have some cooler weather I will be making this ribollita! I came back from Tuscany with soup mix, so I have no excuses really 🙂
Definitely no excuses, Tandy! Thanks for stopping by.
Ribollita is one of those soul-warming dishes that feels like a big hug on a cold day. I love how the bread is not just a filler but actually transforms the soup, adding both richness and a silky texture. Yum!
Thanks, Raymund!
I really should try this – in fact, I feel almost obliged, now that I live also in Lucca. In the UK it has been one of the most popular Italian dishes in the last decades and yet I never made it. I love minestrone and I love bread (but not saltless Tuscan bread, which I find inedible; here in Lucca, unusually, the use salt, fortunately) and yet I have always, consciously , passed this dish. Time to fix this gap in my knowledge (before it gets too warm)
s
You surprise me, Stefano! An Italian chef living in Tuscany who hasn’t tried ribollita. Knock me over with a feather! Anyway, do hope you enjoy. 🙂
I love minestrone – in my book, it’s an epitome to a comfort (yet healthy) soup recipe. I don’t think, though, that I’ve tried this variation. It looks and sounds terrific!
Totally agree, Ben. And hope you give this a try. It’s a winner.
This looks so hearty Frank. I do love me some beans!
sherry
Thanks, Sherry!
Ribollita is a classic for a reason! These photos make me want a bowl of this for dinner tonight. I remember the first time I had Tuscan bread (in Tuscany, no less), and I was shocked at the lack of salt. Now I understand it a bit more. It’s still difficult to beat a good piece of bread with tasty olive oil, though!
Yes, the saltlessness shocks a lot of people. But when you realize it’s more for cooking or to “fare la scarpetta” then eating on its own, it makes sense.
this looks incredibly hearty – which would go down well during this cyclone weather we are having now!
sherry
Thanks! And good luck with the cyclone…
I haven’t tried this specific soup, but aside from the bread, it looks similar to the minestrone we make. It is pouring rain, so I could use some right now! Ciao, Cristina
Yes, it basically is minestrone thickened with bread (instead of the more usual rice or pasta) but that makes a huge difference. Worth a try!
This looks like a great soup. I have a lot of Swiss chard and some Speck . I like to make it with these ingredients and then freeze it . I am leaving for Germany soon, and I always like to leave some meals for my husband.
Thanks, Gerlinde! And have a lovely trip.
That looks absolutely perfect, i just love that you make it ahead and reheat it, making it a perfect weeknight meal.
Definitely!
It has been a while since I enjoyed this – was not even aware of the importance of the cavolo nero in it – am not certain if we in the country can always access it. Worth trying – you show a consistency I would like!
Worth looking for the cavolo nero. It’s the only kind of kale I can eat.
It’s an autumn thing! And I really think you can do without the Savoy cabbage and the Swiss chard, but the black kale is an absolute essential. It’s not really ribollita without it. And I don’t know if it’s naughty (and if it is, I don’t care), but I can never resist chucking a handfull of parmesan into the bowl.
It is naughty but heck, live dangerously. 😉
This is fantastic and perfect for Lent. I will pass this on to my sep-mother for her Carmelite Sisters.
Hope they like it, MD.
Have never had this soup…sounds and looks really warming and tasty.
Thanks so much, Angie!
How amazing that I didn’t know your blog back then, Frank. This is one of my favorite soups, and I’m always so pleased to be in Tuscany to have a bowl. This is the perfect week for comforting soup, as our weather has turned quite cold. Tomorrow, I am posting a white bean and chard soup that is the poor and simpler cousin of ribollita.
I know, we’re been “cyber buddies” for a long time now. Not sure quite when it began! Anyway, I’m going to check out your soup, sounds simple and delicious.
I just saw this at a friend’s restaurant and decided I wanted to make it. Your blog is always the first on my list to check. Definitely going on my menu plan this week.
Thanks, Eva! Hope the recipe works well for you!
How gorgeous. Minnestrone is one of my favorite soups. I make a huge pot about once a year and stuff the freezer at the office with it for those days I just need veggies. Next time, I'll try making it this way. Actually, probably this weekend! Kate @ kateiscooking
It's gorgeous and I love soup in the winter.
I just love the recipes on this blog. They are so simple and delicious. I never ate something like “la rimbollita” only the minestrone, but this is the kind of meal I like. Will certainly try it!
I knew when coming to visit you, I would see something I felt like eating. What a hearty and nutritious dish, I love that pic of the gorgeous green/yellow color of the olive oil on top of the beans 🙂 – hmmmm
I am loving this soup! Definitely going to try this and going to look at your previous post about minestrone. Thanks for sharing both. I hope you have a Happy Thankgiving!
Lovely! Perfect for a chilly day! Warms the soul! :o)
I love the all the variations you give for your recipes! And the background stories – wish there were more!
Sign me up for a bowl. It's gorgeous and I love soup in the winter. Just the name makes me want to walk along the shore in Rapallo. You make me fall in love with Italy again every time I read your recipes.
now I like this one too – the layered soup with the bread sounds so hearty and delicious
ribollita has always been one of my favorite soups to eat and to make! Thanks for sharing a wonderful recipe for such a tasty soup!
Funny I had the same thing on my mind for today too! Love re-boiling it, need to go get some chard! Thanks for the inspiration!
-Gina-
Very strange… I often plan to cook the same meals that you post at the same time! It must be a seasonal Italian roots thing! Just came home with a big bunch of fresh cavolo nero and swiss chard!