Rebolitta Tuscan Soup
contributed by Kay Carroll
Rebollita (literally “reboiled” in Italian) is Minestrone with bread cooked into it. It
is a very traditional soup in Tuscany, where it was invented by people with more ingenuity than money to use up food rather than letting it go to waste. Why throw out the bread when you can put it in the soup?
Ingredients
- ½ cup Bacon, chopped (optional)
- 2 onions, coarsely chopped
- 1 leek, white part only, chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, pressed
- 3 carrots, grated
- 2 potatoes, in ½” cubes
- 1 bunch kale, chopped
- 1 bunch collard greens, chopped
- ½ cabbage, shredded
- 1 bunch Swiss chard, chopped
- 3 small zucchini, cut into rounds (optional, when in season)
- 2 cups cannelini beans
- 4 tbs tomato paste
- 4 tbs olive oil
- salt and pepper to taste
- lots of water
- 1 loaf of Wave Hill Bread, sliced and lightly toasted
Preparation
- In the biggest pot you can find, sauté the bacon in olive oil.
- Add the onions and leeks and cook until soft and starting to brown. Add the garlic and cook until soft.
- Add the other vegetables, stirring vigilantly until the leafy veggies start to reduce and everything is starting to soften up nicely.
- Add water to cover all the vegetables.
- Add more water if you like particularly brothy soup.
- Add the tomato paste.
- Bring it to a boil, reduce the heat, and simmer for one hour.
- Correct the seasonings to taste.
- At this point, what you have got is some good minestrone.
- Cool it well to store.
- The next day, layer the bread slices with the soup in a roasting pan.
- Bake at 400F for 30 minutes.
- Let it sit for at least 20 minutes (you can leave it overnight at this point if you have three days to make soup).
- Heat it up again (Rebollita means “re-boiled?”)
- Serve with a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil or pesto.
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