Ribollita recipe + tips and infos for the traditional tuscan soup

Ribollita is an ancient dish from the popular florentine tradition, a perfect comfort food for winter dinners, and one of my favorite dishes as well. The main ingredient of the Ribollita recipe is tuscan kale, or black kale, a wonderful veggie, pretty much unknown outside of the tuscan borders.

The name Ribollita means “re-boiled” or “cooked twice” and comes from the fact that it’s usually prepared the day before and then cooked again before serving. So the ribollita has all the time it needs to merge all the flavors and becoming super tasty. It’s one of my favorite comfort foods and I could talk about the ribollita recipe for hours!

Traditional tuscan Ribollita recipe

This recipe is for 4 servings.

Ingredients

• 1 bunch of tuscan kale
• 1 bunch of chard
• ¼ of Savoy cabbage head
• 250 grams of rustic tuscan stale bread + some slices for serving
• 2 potatoes
• 2 carrots
• 2 zucchine
• 2 celery starks
• 2 peeled tomatoes
• 1 onion
• 1 leek
• 300 grams of cooked cannellini beans with their own cooking water
• extra virgin olive oil
• salt and pepper

Method

Cut onions into thin slices, peel the potatoes and chop and all the other veggies into chunks.

The big inner rib of Tuscan kale is pretty sinewy, so I usually remove it before cooking the leaves. I make an exception for ribollita, because the cooking time is so long that the rib will eventually become soft. Sometimes, when the rib is really thick, I remove it at least from the bottom part of the leaf, where is thicker. For more infos and recipes read my post about Tuscan kale.

Gently heat the extravirgin olive oil in a large pot, then add onions and let it sautè over medium heat until onions are golden. Then add all the other veggies, stir and let it cook for 10 minutes.

Add 200 grams of cooked cannellini beans and salt and pepper, cover with their cooking water and let it cook over low hear about 2 hours. Stir from time to time, and add some cooking water if it gets too dry. Then chop the stale bread into chuncks, add it to the soup with the remaining beans and cook for 10 more minutes, Add some salt and pepper if needed. The result must be a thick creamy soup with irregular pieces of veggies.

Let it rest for some hours (the best would be letting it rest for a whole night).

Re-heat ribollita a few minutes before serving and stir. Serve it in the traditional terracotta bowls with some toasted slices of bread and extra virgin olive oil.

Ribollita recipe variations

This one is the traditional ribollita recipe, as it was put on paper for the first time in 1891 by Pellegrino Artusi, the godfather of Italian cuisine, in his book Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well. I am a huuuuge fan of Pellgrino Artusi and his book!

I usually use my grandma’s version of this “official” ribollita recipe, but every family has its own version with subtle differences, since this dish was born to recycle the leftovers.

But if your replace tuscan kale, cannellini beans or bread, then it’s not a ribollita anymore!

Here are some ideas for variations of the ribollita recipe:

• I usually replace leeks with red onions because I love onions.
• Chard can be easily replaced with spinaches.
• My grandma never used zucchine so I don’t, and my mom taught me to add a bit of dried chili peppers to balance the flavors.
• I know that some people is adding a fistful of diced pancetta or a piece of prosciutto to the onion sauté. I personally prefer to keep it vegan as it was originally born and made for centuries.
• My mom makes a delicious summer version that she simply calls “zuppa” (soup). The recipe is just the same, she just makes it much thicker, puts it in a casserole, and then serves it cold, cutting it like a lasagna.

You can make your own variations, using the veggies that you can find in your area. Just don’t add sweet ingredients like squash.

My tips for making the Ribollita recipe

These tips are the result of the experience and knowledge of generations of women in my family. They are the tricks and tips my grandmothers Renata and Marusca and my mom Francesca gave me, and I’m happy to share them with anyone who loves Tuscan cuisine.

Don’t use canned cannellini beans. I know it’s a bore using dried beans, as they need to be soaked for one night and then cooked for a couple of hours. Instead canned beans are ready to use, but they really taste different. Dried beans actually taste ten times better!

The best tuscan kale is the one picked after the first winter freezes. Must be thick and crunchy, with a bright dark green color. If it looks floppy or the margins are yellowish this mean it’s not fresh anymore.

The bread should be the typical tuscan bread, which is rustic, saltless and with big holes. With common salted bread the result won’t be the same.

About extra virgin olive oil: it’s really part of the magic, a great extra virgin olive oil makes the difference. Don’t use a cheap one, or a non-extra virgin. For more information, read my post about everything you should know about extra virgin olive oil.

My favorite restaurants in Florence where to eat ribollita

Ribollita soup is one of my favorite winter comfort foods. A dish that warms my belly and my heart, rich in flavor and very filling. I admit I don’t cook it often at home, at least not as often as I’d like. However, I often order it when I eat out, and I love discovering the different recipes, the variations, and those small differences that make a restaurant’s cuisine unique.

Here are the restaurants in Florence that make the best ribollita, in my opinion:

Rocco at Sant’Ambrogio Market

This small, informal restaurant located inside the market of Sant’Ambrogio fed me with food and kindness since I was at the university. My faculty is right in front of the market and Rocco was my favorite spot for the lunch break. They make the same food that my grandma would make me for lunch: simple, old-fashioned and delicious. You’ll have to share the table with other people, and won’t find fancy dishes on the menu. Actually you won’t find any menu, just a chalkboard with the (few) dishes of the day, made with fresh, seasonal ingredients. The ribollita is just perfect, warming and rich as it should be.

Trattoria il Giova

A simple and informal place, a classic Tuscan trattoria that has remained unchanged for decades. Paper placemats, house wine, and traditional dishes. Usually before the ribollita. I have an antipasto di coccoli (small balls of fried bread dough) filled with prosciutto and stracchino cheese. It’s located in Borgo la Croce, very close to Santa Croce church and to the Sant’Ambrogio market.

Trattoria da Marione

This is my mom’s favorite place for the ribollita, and Marione’s recipe is her personal model to follow. I love Marione for a lot of good reasons, and their ribollita, exceptionally creamy, is just one of them. Another very good reason is their pappardelle al cinghiale (wild boar). Talking about that… Here are my favorite and best pasta restaurants in Florence.

I hope you found some useful information in this post! If you have your own personal recipe of the ribollita soup, then I want to know it! Leave a comment and share your recipe with me and my readers!