And what, you may ask, is ribollita; well, if you haven’t heard of it and I say cabbage soup you'll probably get completely the wrong idea.

Ribollita, meaning twice boiled, is a hearty Tuscan dish, best eaten when the weather is cold and miserable. I first heard of it when we were planning to go to Florence for the first time and it kept cropping up in everything we read about Tuscan food – so, one of the first things we had to eat, one lunchtime in a trattoria the name of which I cannot remember (but which I could probably find again), was a ribollita.
It was robust, colourful, and full of strong fresh flavours. And now I discover that everywhere you look on the web someone gives the recipe for the perfect ribollita – and as with all these dishes, there are probably as many ways of cooking a ribollita, as there are cooks to cook it. This may not be the perfect one but it’s as close as I can get to that first one we had.

In Tuscany it would be made using cavolo nero, an Italian dark cabbage, but you can use any dark greens such as the outer leaves of a savoy.

serves 4 people - unless you eat twice as much as most people, in which case it will serve 2

what to put in it

4 rashers smoked streaky bacon cut into strips about ¼ inch wide
3 or 4 small carrots, chopped
a couple of sticks of celery and leaves, chopped
2 small to medium red onions
4 cloves garlic, chopped finely
a pinch of dried red chillies (optional)
2 tins chopped tomatoes
4 bay leaves
a good-sized savoy cabbage, outer dark leaves only, leaving the heart for something else
1 or 2 tins cannellini beans, according to personal preference
litre of chicken stock ( if I haven’t got any home-made stock I’ll use a Knorr cube)
water as necessary
eight slices of old ciabatta

how to do it

first of all put some olive oil into a large saucepan and fry the bacon – or pancetta - until it is just beginning to go crisp

now turn the heat down to low, add the onion, celery and carrot and cook gently until the onion is transparent and then add the garlic (and chili, if you are using it) and fry gently for a little bit longer

add the tins of tomatoes and the chicken stock, season with salt and freshly ground black pepper, add the bay leaves and simmer gently for a while so the flavours can all blend in


'... everything's in but the beans and the greens ...'

finally, add beans and greens and continue to simmer for about 30 minutes or so

drizzle good olive oil onto both sides of the slices of ciabatta then season with salt and black pepper and bake in the oven until golden brown and crisp

wipe a considerable amount of garlic onto both sides of the bread and then place two/three slices into each bowl,
put the soup on top and serve in white porcelain bowls on a white linen tablecloth with white linen napkins and a dry white, but slightly fruity, Italian wine