A jump in one of the pillars of Italian cuisine: traditional soups
Italian cuisine is wide and with many facets depending on regional traditions and tastes, but there are some pillars that represent the common roots on which the Italian taste express itself.
One of these pillars are soups; they are the expression of the most ancient cuisine tradition, considered the emblem of a “modest dish”. The variety of soups in Italian cuisine depends on regional traditions and the local products offered by the territory. The most widespread are the ones where vegetables are the protagonist, but along the peninsula, we can find many other variations that make seafood and molluscs, or even meat, the key ingredient.
Rooted in rural traditions, soups are a great source of nutrients and taste and are perfect as a main dish throughout the cold season.
Among the many traditional Italian soup, one of my fav is definitely the “Ribollita”, typical of Tuscan territory. This incredible soup is a mix of black kale, savoy and cannellini beans and, as its name suggest (Ribollita is literally Re-boiled), re-heated is even better!
The traditional recipe includes also the adding of stale bread that gives the typical semi-solid texture; the recipe I’m going to share with you doesn’t include the bread as I thought to serve it directly in a bread loaf! Is not it a scenic way to serve a soup?
Ingredients
black kale 200g
savoy 200g
potatoes 200g
cannellini beans 200g
carrots 50g
celery 50g
onion 50g
leek 100g
chard 80g
cherry tomatoes 80g
extra virgin olive oil
rosemary
chives
Method
The night before, put the dry cannellini beans in water to soak. The day after, put the in a pan covered with water and cook them with a bay leaf for 1 hr. When well soft, strain them keeping all the cooking water that we will use to cook the Ribollita. If you are going to use canned cannellini beans, prepare a vegetable stock.
While our beans are boiling, chop finely the celery, onion and carrots and gently sautee them in a large pot with abundant oil. Chop all the other ingredients; be sure to remove the hard core of the kale and chard and chop the leaves in large pieces.
Add all the chopped vegetables in the pot adjusting of salt and pepper and add some of the water we of the beans. Cook at low heat covered for at least 1 ½ hr and keep adding water if necessary.
At this point, we can include the cannellini beans (along with other water or stock) and cook covered for another hour.
The soup should be well moist and not dry, so be sure to keep on adding water all along.
With a ladle, take out ⅔ of the soup, blend it until smooth and re-incorporate it.
Cut a rounded loaf bread, remove all the soft inside and pour some oil at the bottom. Pour the Ribollita well hot in it. Enrich with some finely chopped chives and a generous pouring of extra virgin olive oil.