Robollita – down to earth and heavenly.
We’re very excited to be doing some work with our friends at Tideford Organics in Totnes and it’s reminded us just how much we love soup. It’s a food for every mood and season – light and brothy with fragrant, zingy flavours or warming, ribsticking and hearty for the depths of winter.
Today we came up with our version of ribollita – the classic Tuscan soup involving some kind of cabbage or kale, beans and old bread. Sounding a bit worthy I know but cooked altogether with a healthy dose of garlic and Parmesan and wow, what a great meal! Here’s what we did….
RIBOLLITA
- 2tbsp olive oil
- 3 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
- 1 stick celery, finely chopped
- 2 medium carrots, peeled and finely chopped
- 2 onions, peeled and finely chopped
- 3tbsp chopped fresh parsley
- 1 x 400g tin chopped tomatoes
- ½ Savoy cabbage, destalked and finely shredded
- 1 x 400g tin borlotti beans, drained and rinsed
- 2 thick slices stale white bread, crusts off and cut into 1cm cubes
- Chicken Stock
- Salt and pepper
- More olive oil
- 2-3tbsp freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Get everything ready and then start cooking
- Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan, add the garlic, celery, carrots and onions, cover with a lid and gently cook until soft – about 15 minutes. Take your time over this stage and take care not to brown the veggies – you just want to cook them gently until soft to bring out their sweetness.
- Add the tomatoes, cabbage and 2tbsp of the parsley, season well, cover and cook gently for another 15 minutes.
We used Savoy cabbage but curly kale or cavolo nero are both fab.
- Add the beans and bread and cover with stock. Bring to the boil and simmer for 10 minutes.
If you can’t get borlotti beans, cannellini or haricot beans are fine
- Off the heat, whizz with a hand blender until half smooth and half lumpy and adjust the seasoning if necessary. If too thick add some more stock although the soup should be thick. Bring back to the boil and serve with the rest of the parsley and the Parmesan cheese and some more olive oil drizzled over the top.
Warming, comforting, healthy and full of flavour – a perfect lunch or dinner for this time of year – Buon Apetito!