Ribollita

Many years ago, it's actually scary for me to think of how many, I was lucky enough to study in Florence, Italy for four weeks one summer. The biggest things that stick out as what made that summer so fantastic are the art and the food. You really can't go wrong in either category while in Florence. I won't go into too much detail about it here, but if you ever need a really good meal while in Florence I can tell you where to go.

There is one dish, however, that I'll tell you about. Ribollita. It means "twice boiled" and is a Tuscan peasant soup. Basically, a household would make this soup at the end of the week using whatever vegetables and bread were leftover from the week. We ate it one day in a little place that I think was called the Black Rooster, or Gallo Negro. It was a really delicious and hearty bowl of soup, a real soup meal. If you know my family, and you know that we're big soup people, it shouldn't surprise you that I wanted to make my own Ribollita.

We have the Tom Valenti cookbook, Soup, Stews, and One-Pot Meals. Like most cookbook owners, we haven't cooked most of the recipes in our cookbook collection. But when I wanted to find a good Ribollita recipe, Tom Valenti came through for me. This recipe is really very easy to make. The only real work is prepping all the veggies. It's a real one pot dish, making clean up easy, too.

Rather than type the whole thing out for you, I found this site with the recipe already posted. I will, however, share these photos of this week's Ribollita adventure. (By the way, for you kosher folk, this recipe is totally parve until you add the cheese at the end. You can skip that and use it as a vegetable soup, but with the cheese it's a great dairy option.)

Start out with your basic mirepoix (carrots, celery, and onion) with the addition of leek.

Then add the cabbage, kale, white beans, and canned tomato.Cook it, refrigerate it, and cook it again. This is the perfect recipe for weekend cooking but weeknight eating.Before serving, toast your bread to make the croutons. Beware of the recipe's instructions to place cheese topped bread under the broiler. Mine literally caught fire like nobody's business. I think you can skip that step.

This soup is so yummy, and full of so many healthy things. I actually pureed a small batch of it to use as baby food, and my 8-month-old loves it. I didn't add any salt and pepper so that it would be ok for her, but I found that the stock added plenty of seasoning, as does the final topping of grated Parmesan. Don't skip out on the cheesy crouton, either. The chunks of soup-soaked bread really make this dish.