Ribollita – Tuscan White Bean Soup.

Ribollita – Tuscan White Bean Soup Recipe - Love and Lemons
Ribollita is a famous Tuscan soup, a hearty potage made with bread and vegetables.
There are many variations but the main ingredients always include leftover bread, cannellini beans and inexpensive vegetables such as carrot, cabbage, beans, silverbeet, cavolo nero, and onion.
Its name literally means "reboiled".

10 servings.

1/4 cup olive oil
1 carrot, diced
1 red onion, diced
2 ribs celery, diced
4 ounces cauliflower florets, diced
4 ounces savoy cabbage, diced
1 leek (white part only), washed and diced
1 bunch cavalo nero (black cabbage), cleaned and chopped
1 potato, peeled and diced
Sea salt and black pepper to taste
1/4 cup cooked white beans
1 14-ounce can San Marzano tomatoes, crushed
1 quart chicken broth
1 large sprig rosemary
1 to 2 large sprigs thyme
Peel of 1 orange
1 teaspoon black peppercorns
1 pound Italian peasant bread-diced and oven-dried
Extra-virgin olive oil, preferably Tuscan

In a soup pot over high heat, heat half the olive oil, and add all the vegetables.
Season with salt and pepper.
Stirring occasionally, cook until the vegetables are semi soft.

Add the cooked white beans and the crushed tomatoes with the juice.
Cook 3 minutes and then add the chicken broth.
Taste and adjust the seasoning.
Tie in a piece of cheese cloth the rosemary, thyme, orange peel and peppercorns to make a bouquet garni and add to the pot.
Bring to a boil and then turn down a simmer for 1 hour.

Refrigerate overnight.
The next day, bring the soup to a boil, and stirring constantly, add all the bread until the soup becomes very thick, like a stuffing.
Set aside.

Heat a little olive oil in a large nonstick saute pan, and add the bread soup.
Brown on both sides and serve immediately, garnished with a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil.

Note: Substitute for Cannellini Beans (large white Italian kidney beans ): - Great Northern or white (navy) beans or flageolets.

- Nigel Slater's classic ribollita | Life and style | The Guardian

List of Italian soups - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia