Ribollita
By: Taylor Davies
Published: Wednesday, December 9, 2009 - 2:50am

Ingredients




1/4 cup olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
1 carrot, chopped
1 onion, chopped
1 celery stalk, chopped
3 fresh or canned tomatoes, peeled
1 fresh thyme sprig
2 potatoes, coarsely diced
7 1/2 cups cavolo nero
(Tuscan Cabbage), shredded

1 cup fresh white beans, soaked in cold water overnight, and drained
4 country-style bread slices
Salt and pepper

Preparation

1 Heat the oil in a pan, add the carrot, onion and celery and cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes until softened. 2 Add the tomatoes, thyme and potatoes and cook for a few minutes, then add the cavolo nero and beans. 3 Pour in 8 3/4 cups water and season with salt. 4 Bring to a boil, lower the heat, cover and simmer for about 2 hours. 5 Preheat the oven to 350F. Place the bread on the base of a large earthenware casserole and ladle in the soup.  Cook in the oven for about 10 minutes, sprinkle with pepper and drizzle with oil.

About


From "The Silver Spoon" cookbook.  It says, "This soup is called Ribollita (reboiled) because  it was originally made using the previous day's leftover vegetable soup heated in an earthenware pot with thinly sliced onion, black pepper and olive oil sprinkled on the surface.  It was taken off the heat and served when the onion had turned golden brown."