Get Premium access to all the latest content online
Subscribe and view full print editions online... Subscribe
Ribolita (Tuscan bean soup)
Serves 6-8 Starters and mains
Ingredients
- 225g dried cannellini beans
- 100ml extra virgin olive oil
- 1 Spanish onion, sliced
- 1-2 dried chillies, deseeded and chopped
- 2 tomatoes, peeled, deseeded and coarsely chopped
- 1tbsp concentrated tomato purée
- 3 medium potatoes, cut into small cubes
- 2 medium carrots, cut into small cubes
- 1 small leek, white and green parts, cut into small pieces
- 3 celery stalks, cut into small pieces
- 6 cavolo nero leaves, thick stalk removed and thinly cut
- 2 garlic cloves, sliced
- 3-4 fresh thyme sprigs
For cooking the beans
- 1 medium onion, quartered
- 1 small celery stalk
- fresh sage, rosemary and parsley sprigs
- 3 garlic cloves
For reheating
- 1-2 Spanish onions, very finely sliced
- 6-8 slices brown sourdough bread
- 2 garlic cloves, halved
Method
Soak the beans overnight in cold water. The next day, drain, rinse and put them in a heavy-based pan with all the ingredients for cooking the beans. Cover with cold water by around 5cm and bring slowly to the boil. Add 2 teaspoon salt, cover the pan and cook very gently until the beans are tender (around 11⁄2-2 hours). Lift all the beans and veg out of the liquid and purée three-quarters of them into a bowl using a food mill with the large-hole disc fitted. (If you do not have a food mill, you can purée the beans in a food processor, but you will get a very coarse purée with bits of skin in it.) Leave the remaining beans whole. Transfer the cooking liquid to another bowl.
Put 75ml oil, the onion and the chillies in the pan in which you cooked the beans. Sprinkle with a pinch of salt and sauté for 10 minutes or so. Add the tomatoes and the tomato paste, cook for 2 to 3 minutes and then mix in the bean purée. Let the mixture take up the flavour for a couple of minutes while you stir it around and then add all the other vegetables, garlic and thyme.
Measure the bean liquid in the bowl and add enough water to make it up to 1.5 litres. Transfer to the pan and bring to the boil. Cook over the lowest heat for around 2 hours. Check the seasoning and leave overnight.
The next day, preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4. To reheat the soup, mix in the whole beans and add enough sliced onion to make a thin layer all over the surface of the soup. Put the pan in the oven and cook until the onion is tender, around 1 hour.
Rub the bread with garlic, then toast under the grill. Put the bread into individual soup bowls and ladle the soup over it. Drizzle the remaining oil over each bowl.
Advertisement