Name: Alvaro’s Ribollita (Ribollita alla Pistoiese)
Yield: Serves 4 (generously)
Cuisine: Italy
Ingredients: 1–4 Italian sausages (available from most good Italian delicatessens) or strong-flavoured English sausages (preferably hand-made); any other Leaf vegetables of your choice; 1 X 5 oz (125 g) tin white beans (butter beans, haricot or cannellini); about 2 pints (1.2 litres) cold water; 9 oz (250 g) stale country-style white or brown bread (the harder the better); 2 tablespoons olive oil plus extra to serve; 3 carrots, scraped and coarsely chopped; salt and pepper; 2 onions, peeled and sliced; 1 small spring cabbage, shredded; 2 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed; 2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped

Preparation info

Serves
4
(generously)

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

Italian Regional Cookery

By Valentina Harris

Published 1990

About

Ribollita is one of those sturdy Tuscan soups that were part of my upbringing. When I was a child, it was one of the things I disliked eating the most, and I was threatened with all kinds of punishments unless I finished my plateful. When my friend Alvaro Maccioni suggested we make it together, my first reaction was one of horror - I was transported back to scenes of silent childhood rage in which I used to eat the soup as slowly as possible in the hope that somebody would give up the fight