
Bread, Bean and Cabbage Soup
A Tuscan staple, which uses my vegetable of the moment, the crinkled and crepe-paper-like Cavolo Nero. A beautiful, dark green, elongated cabbage which has an incredible depth of flavour and stays sturdy even after extensive cooking. I have written more about it in the previous post on pesto.
Ribollita is the epitome of peasant Italian cooking. It involves nothing fancy or expensive, a handful of simple ingredients treated carefully and specifically, to make a whole dish that is a deep, sweet and savoury revelation.
When I worked at The Dock Kitchen we had Ribollita on the menu all through the winter, and it sold like hot cakes. There could be no better mid-winter soup; it will get right down to your cockles (wherever they might be hiding) and wrap them in a warm and beany blanket. The beans add creaminess and substance, and soaking bread in the soup at the end of cooking means it thickens and becomes almost a stew. It also adds an inimitable flavour, a sweet wheatiness which works so well with the slightly bitter cabbage and the sweet/sour tomatoes.
Here's how to get it just right:
- You need really, really good extra virgin olive oil for this. Especially to finish it, the pepperiness is essential in off-setting the overall sweetness.
- Don’t go too heavy on the tomatoes
- Cook all the ingredients at separate stages to not just end up with green-brown mush
- Use good bread, flavoursome sourdough or something wholesome and crusty, it makes a difference
- Chuck in a parmesan rind or two during cooking, it helps add flavour and depth. Equally a bit of bacon or pancetta at the beginning is a welcome addition
- Some recipes squash/puree some of the beans and stir it in to thicken and flavour the soup even more. I did this roughly with a spoon but they sort of break down on their own anyway.
Serves 4-6
250g Cannellini Beans, soaked in lots of cold water, overnight
A couple of sundried tomatoes (optional – I use the Sardinian salted ones)
A sprig or two of rosemary
3 cloves of garlic
3 fresh bay leaves
1 large onion
2 carrots
2 sticks of celery
1 courgette
A sprig of rosemary
Parmesan rind
2 bunches of cavolo nero (300g circa), stripped of the ‘ribs’
2 hunks/slices of old rustic bread (about 200g) (not white sliced!)
250g Passata or tinned tomatoes or fresh if you have ok ones
Extra virgin olive oil (lots)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Extra bruschetta to serve (i like it with rosemary and garlic)
Start by cooking the beans (or buy ready cooked ones if you don’t have time). Place in a large saucepan with water to cover about 2 inches above. Add the flavourings (bay leaves, garlic, sundried tomatoes) and a glug of olive oil. Cook, covered, until just tender but not collapsing. I do this in a pressure cooker and it takes about 25-30 minutes. Set aside.
Now start the soup. Finely dice the onion, carrot, celery and courgette. Heat a good glug of olive oil in a heavy based frying pan and add the diced vegetables. Cook, over a low heat, stirring frequently, until completely soft (this will take a good while). Add the rosemary and parmesan rind and continue cooking. Now add the cabbage and the tomatoes and a small glass or two of water or stock if you have it and continue cooking until the cabbage is tender and the liquid slightly reduced. Add the beans and their liquid, smushing some of them first with the back of a spoon before you add them in to help thicken and enrich the liquid. Stir and cook for a minute or two. Taste for seasoning and add salt and black pepper and a good slug of your best olive oil. Now add the bread, roughly torn, and stir. You may need to let it down with a touch of water, and season it up again accordingly. Serve, with extra ground pepper and some extra oil on top.
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