Ribollita

We've been having a lot of soup weather here in Humboldt lately so I decided to make some delicious Italian soup, ribollita, that I'd first tried a few months back.  The ingredients are cheap, it's simple to prepare, it makes a good amount, and it tastes heavenly.  If you like minestrone, then you'll love ribollita, as ribollita simply means "re-boiled" and is a classic Italian "day after minestrone" leftover soup.  It's a way to stretch another meal out of the leftover minestrone in a way that tastes very similar.  The bulk of the soup is veggies and almost any veggies you want can be used.  It really is a "toss whatever you have in the fridge that you need to use up" dish.

For tunes with this recipe I decided to go with some old school, New York Dolls, Chatterbox.  It's dirty, grungy, dissonant, and it's the very early 70's garage rock that would eventually become punk rock as it was known in the late 70's and early 80's.  -justin

Ribollita
Time: 3 hrs
Serves: 8
Difficulty: Easy

• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tbsp sea salt (or 2 tbsp kosher salt)
• 1/4 lb bacon, diced
• 2 cups chopped yellow onion
• 1 cup chopped carrots
• 1 cup chopped celery 
• 1 tbsp capers
• 2 tbsp minced garlic
• 1 tsp fresh ground black pepper
• 1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
• 1 can (28 oz) whole pealed tomatoes in puree, chopped
• 4 cups roughly chopped cabbage
• 3 cups roughly chopped kale
• 1/4 cup fresh chopped basil
• 6 cups chicken stock
• 1 can white beans
• 3 cups bread cubes
• freshly grated asiago cheese

In an 8qt dutch oven, or similarly large soup pot, heat the oil. Add the diced bacon and onions and cook over medium-low heat for 10 minutes or until the onions are translucent.  Add the carrots, celery, capers, garlic, salt, ground black pepper and red pepper flakes.  Continue cooking over medium-low heat for an additional 10 minutes or until veggies are tender.  Add the tomatoes with their puree, cabbage, kale and basil and cook, stirring occasionally, for another 10 minutes.

Drain the beans, reserving the liquid, and add half of the whole beans to the veggies.  Puree the other half of the beans in their liquid and add to the stock pot along with the 6 cups chicken broth.  Bring the soup to a boil and reduce to a low simmer for 1.5 hrs.  Add the bread to the soup and simmer for another 30 minutes.

Taste for seasoning and serve hot with a little drizzle of olive oil and the grated asiago.