Aside from the stale bread, the main ingredient for Ribollita is “Cavolo Nero”,which in the US is called Tuscan Kale. It is almost the real deal, with the difference that here in America it is harvested when still small in size; I have seen kale bunches in Tuscany as tall as 3 feet… That’s why my mom had to cook it for over one hour before being able to serve it over bruschetta.
Ribollita is a dish that gets better while it sits, and can be kept in the fridge for up to 5 days (no freezer for this one); Therefore the amount of ingredients that we will give you for this recipe will be enough for a soup that can either feed a small army, be an appetizer for 40, or just sit in the fridge for a few days while the whole family nibbles at it.A quick note about the bread.
We do consume a decent quantity of bread during the week that we always end up with a bag of leftovers to be used for this kind of recipes. If you’d rather plan to cook this traditional Tuscan soup in a more “produced way” you can either:
– buy a couple of loaves of bread, slice them thin and let sit for a couple of days on in a basket, cover with a kitchen towel. Make sure you stir occasionally, and if you have a sunny window, that would help.
OR
– slice the bread and load a couple of baking sheets, dry in the oven at 250 for a couple of hour, or more. Check often, because you can not cook Ribollita with toasted bread.