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Ribollita Tuscan Bread Soup

Our trip to Italy only spurred our love and passion for Italian food. We loved learning about the traditional dishes from each city we visited. In Florence, Ribollita was on nearly every lunch menu. It’s a very simple but hearty and flavorful vegetable based soup, perfect to warm up in this chilly winter weather. Ribollita means “re-boiled” in Italian. This soup has peasant origins, when people would take their leftover vegetable soup and re-boil it with stale bread for a hearty filling meal. It usually features white beans like Cannellini beans, carrots, cabbage, onion, celery, potatoes, and kale. Luckily, we get almost all of these vegetables in our JBG Organic CSA box, making this soup a no-brainer for this week’s lunches.
Ribollita Tuscan Bread Soup
In the traditional version, the soup base is actually made starting with dried beans that have been soaked overnight and simmered until tender. This process takes several hours and, if you’re like us, time is key, so we adapted it slightly and used canned beans and chicken broth instead. It can easily be made vegetarian by using a vegetable broth instead.
Ribollita Tuscan Bread Soup
It’s definitely not the prettiest dish, but it is so flavorful and filling and seriously tastes even better the next day. It’s great to prepare a large batch on the weekend and enjoy throughout the week. Just add a little drizzle of olive oil and some grated parmesan cheese before serving and you have a complete meal.
Ribollita Tuscan Bread Soup
Hope you enjoyed this little trip to Tuscany!
Ribollita Tuscan Bread Soup

Ribollita Tuscan Bread Soup

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Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour
Total Time 1 hour 30 minutes
Course Main Dish
Cuisine Italian
Servings 6 Servings

Ingredients
  

  • 2.5 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil Plus more for drizzling
  • 1 yellow onion Diced
  • 3 Carrots Diced
  • 2 Stalks Celery Diced
  • 2 Medium Potatoes Diced
  • 1/4 Head Green Cabbage Shredded
  • 1 14 Ounce Can Diced Tomatoes
  • 4 Cups Low-Sodium Chicken or Vegetable Broth
  • 1 14 Ounce Can Cannellini Beans or Pinto Beans Drained and rinsed
  • 1.5 Cups Stale White Bread, such as Sourdough Roughly Chopped
  • 1 Head Tuscan (Lacinato) Kale Roughly Chopped
  • Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions
 

  • In a large Dutch Oven or pot, heat up olive oil. Add diced onions and saute about 5 minutes or until translucent.
  • Add carrots, celery, potatoes, and cabbage and continue to saute another 5-10 minutes.
  • Next, add diced tomatoes and beans and stir to combine.
  • Add chicken broth and bring to a simmer. Cover and let cook about 30-35 minutes or until potatoes are soft.
  • Next, add in pieces of bread, a few at a time, being sure to immerse them completely in the broth. Stir well to combine and break up the pieces of bread.
  • Next, blend using an immersion blender directly in the pot, or in batches in a blender. The soup should be thick, but you can thin it out to your preference with some water. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
  • Lastly, add in roughly chopped kale and stir until wilted slightly.
  • Serve soup with a drizzle of olive oil and some grated parmesan cheese.
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