Ribollita is a thick Italian soup made with vegetables, beans, and bread. Its name refers to the practice of adding more ingredients as the soup runs out, extending its shelf life. Traditional recipes vary, but usually include collard greens or kale, cannellini beans, onions, garlic, carrots, and tomatoes. Modern recipes may add bacon or tomato paste and are served over crusty bread.
Ribollita is an Italian soup consisting of vegetables, such as cabbage and cannellini beans, and hard or stale bread. Historically, it was prepared by Tuscan farmers during the winter months. While modern recipes may vary from their traditional counterparts, the soup is always cooked to a thick, stew-like consistency.
Its name, which translates to “ri-bollito” in Italian, refers to the fact that traditionally, more vegetables and stock would be added and boiled into the soup as its supply ran out. This practice allowed the shelf life of the soup to be extended beyond a day or two, but it also allowed the soup to vary slightly from day to day. Other explanations for its name, however, claim that the soup is actually made with leftover minestrone, which has bread added and is recalled days later.
Traditionally, ribollita was a Tuscan peasant soup made during the winter, often cooked slowly over a wood stove. It contained different types of vegetables which can vary according to home recipes. Common greens in most recipes include collard greens or kale, cannellini beans, onions, garlic, carrots, and tomatoes. The soup was traditionally made with stale bread, although modern recipes may call for sliced ciabatta, an Italian bread with a tough crust. Adding bread allows the soup to thicken and become stew-like.
Some describe ribollita as a byproduct of minestrone, another type of Italian vegetable soup usually made with small pasta like ditallini. After a minestrone soup has been cooked and most of it is eaten, thinly sliced bread is added the next day. Once the soup soaks into the bread and the bread thickens the soup, the product is restarted and served. Others, however, insist that minestrone and ribollita are two very separate soups.
Modern recipes for ribollita generally start with sautéed onions, carrots and garlic with plenty of extra virgin olive oil. Variations of the recipe may include adding bacon at this stage, or bacon, which is a type of Italian smoked bacon. Tomatoes or tomato paste are then added to deglaze the browned bits in the pot, followed by beans, herbs, and broth or stock. Sometimes, the rind of a hard cheese, such as Parmesan, is added and removed after cooking.
After boiling and simmering for 30 to 60 minutes, the soup is then seasoned with salt and pepper. The soup can then be poured into a bowl over the crusty bread. This modern method of preparing ribollita offers a distinct change from traditional recipes in which the soup is cooked with the bread already incorporated.
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