''Ribollita'' () is a Tuscan
bread soup
Bread soup is a simple soup that mainly consists of bread, usually staling, stale bread. Variations exist in many countries, and it is often eaten during Lent. Both brown bread, brown and white bread may be used.
The basis for bread soup is tra ...
,
panade,
porridge
Porridge is a food made by heating, soaking or boiling ground, crushed or chopped starchy plants, typically grain, in milk or water. It is often cooked or served with added flavourings such as sugar, honey, fruit, or syrup to make a sweet cereal ...
, or
potage
Pottage or potage (, ; ) is a term for a thick soup or stew made by boiling vegetables, grains, and, if available, meat or fish. It was a staple food for many centuries. The word ''pottage'' comes from the same Old French root as ''potage'', w ...
made with bread and vegetables, often from leftovers.
There are many variations, but the usual ingredients include leftover bread,
cannellini beans,
lacinato kale,
cabbage
Cabbage, comprising several cultivars of '' Brassica oleracea'', is a leafy green, red (purple), or white (pale green) biennial plant grown as an annual vegetable crop for its dense-leaved heads. It is descended from the wild cabbage ( ''B.& ...
and inexpensive vegetables such as
carrot
The carrot ('' Daucus carota'' subsp. ''sativus'') is a root vegetable, typically orange in colour, though heirloom variants including purple, black, red, white, and yellow cultivars exist, all of which are domesticated forms of the wild ...
,
beans
A bean is the seed of some plants in the legume family (Fabaceae) used as a vegetable for human consumption or animal feed. The seeds are often preserved through drying (a ''pulse''), but fresh beans are also sold. Dried beans are tradition ...
,
chard
Chard (; '' Beta vulgaris'' subsp. ''vulgaris'', Cicla Group and Flavescens Group) is a green leafy vegetable. In the cultivars of the Flavescens Group, or Swiss chard, the leaf stalks are large and often prepared separately from the leaf b ...
,
celery
Celery (''Apium graveolens'' Dulce Group or ''Apium graveolens'' var. ''dulce'') is a cultivated plant belonging to the species ''Apium graveolens'' in the family Apiaceae that has been used as a vegetable since ancient times.
The original wild ...
,
potato
The potato () is a starchy tuberous vegetable native to the Americas that is consumed as a staple food in many parts of the world. Potatoes are underground stem tubers of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'', a perennial in the nightshade famil ...
es and
onion
An onion (''Allium cepa'' , from Latin ), also known as the bulb onion or common onion, is a vegetable that is the most widely cultivated species of the genus '' Allium''. The shallot is a botanical variety of the onion which was classifie ...
. It is often baked in a clay pot.
Like most
Tuscan cuisine, the soup has peasant origins. It was originally made by reheating (or reboiling) the leftover
minestrone or
vegetable soup
Vegetable soup is a common soup prepared using vegetables (including leaf vegetables, and sometimes loosely mushrooms) as primary ingredients. It dates to ancient history, and in modern times is also a mass-produced food product.
Overview
Vege ...
from the previous day with
stale bread
Staling, or "going stale", is a chemical and physical process in bread and similar foods that reduces their palatability. Stale bread is dry and hard, making it less suitable for different culinary uses than fresh bread. Countermeasures and desta ...
.
Some sources date it back to the
Middle Ages
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...
, when the servants gathered up food-soaked bread
trenchers from feudal lords' banquets and boiled them for their dinners.
History
It is a typical
poverty food of peasant origins, whose name derives from the fact that the peasants cooked a large quantity of it (especially on Fridays, as it is a
fasting food) and then re-boiled it on the following days (hence "''ribollita''").
The dish is first documented in 1910, in ''L'arte cucinaria in Italia'' by Alberto Cougnet.
See also
*
List of Italian soups
This is a list of notable Italian soups. Soups are sometimes served as the ( first course) in Italian cuisine. In some regions of Italy, such as Veneto, soup is eaten more than pasta.
Italian soups
* – originally a peasant food, its pre ...
*
List of vegetable soups
This is a list of vegetable soups. Vegetable soup is a common soup prepared using vegetables and leaf vegetables as primary ingredients.
Vegetable soups
* Atama soup – a vegetable and palm nut soup that originates in South Nigeria.
*
* ...
*
List of bread dishes
This is a list of bread dishes and foods, which use bread as a primary ingredient. Bread is a staple food prepared from a dough of flour and water, usually by baking. Throughout recorded history it has been popular around the world and is one of ...
*
Minestrone
References
External links
''Ribollita'' recipe
Italian soups
Cuisine of Tuscany
Bread soups
Peasant food
{{Italy-cuisine-stub