I want you to keep an open mind.  When I first heard of this stale bread soup I thought hell no!

However, I had it when I visited Italy and I’m now a total convert, it was one of the best dishes I tried.  Like most popular Italian dishes, this is peasant food, and came about when servants would be given scraps that they would reboil into a soup.  Ribollita is actually more like a stew and is extremely satisfying and the perfect comfort food.  Each family has their own version, but the basic ingredients are a sofritto (this is a base of finely chopped carrots, celery and onion, I whizz mine in a food precessor when I can’t be bothered standing chopping). For the bread part, I used some stale ciabatta I had, other types of bread like French baguette would also work (not sure how ideal sliced white supermarket bread would be).

Italian Grannies save the rind of parmasan to flavour this, but I just added some of the grated cheese. If you want to make this a vegan dish you can swap this out for pine nuts. The beauty of this is that it is the original zero waste recipe.  Basically you use what ever you have and it’s perfect for using up those left over bits in your fridge.  You can also season with the flavours you like.  The original version I tried had fennel seeds, for the version I made at home I used oregano because it’s what I had.  Rosemary or basil would also work well, so feel free to experiment.

Serves 3-4

400 Mil Can Chopped tomatoes or pasatta

400 Mil Can Cannalini beans (set aside half the tin and mash with a fork, this will help mske the ribollita creamy, as with the other ingredients feel free to use whatever type of brand you have)

1/2 Tsp Chilli flakes

1 Tbsp Olive oil

1 Tbsp Tomato puree

100 Grams Stale bread (broken into 3-4cm chunks)

2 Handfuls shredded cabbage (I used savoy cabbage because this is what I had, but kale or cavelo nero also work well in this dish

500 Mil Vegetable stock

2 Carrots (finely chopped)

2 Sticks of celery (finely chopped)

1 Onion (finely chopped)

2-3 Cloves of garlic (finely chopped)

25 Grams Grated Parmasan (plus extra for serving

1 Tbsp Chopped fresh oregano (or 1 Tsp dried herbs)

1 tablespoon of red wine vinegar (or a splash of red wine if you have a bottle open)

Method

• Heat the oil in a large pot, and gently fry the onion, celery and carrot over a medium heat for 2-3 minutes
• Add the cabbage and tomato puree and fry for a further couple of minutes
• Add rest of the ingredients and simmer for another 15-20 minutes before checking the seasoning
• Ladle into large bowls and sprinkle with some grated parmasan (or whichever cheese you have)