Minestrone or Rebollita
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? I find it funny that this Tuscan peasant farming staple is now served in posh restaurants, but it’s So Damn Good, they couldn’t help themselves.
2 onions, coarsely chopped
1 leek, white part only, chopped
3 cloves garlic, pressed
3 carrots, grated
2 potatoes, in 1/2″ cubes
1 bunch kale
1/2 cabbage
1 bunch swiss chard
3 small zucchini, cut into rounds
2 C cannelini beans
4 T tomato paste
4 T olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
lots of water
1 loaf of crusty italian bread, sliced and lightly toasted*
In the biggest pot you can find, heat the 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 big pot. Some people do this in the oven, but they apparently have larger baking dishes than I do, because this is a lot of soup. Bring it to a simmer for a few minutes, then turn the heat off. 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 (did I mention that ribollita means “re-boiled?”) and serve with a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil or pesto.