Tuscan Ribollita

I decided to make soup for dinner as it is cold today.  I forgot to mention yesterday that the recipe was also from Cooking Light.  Today’s soup is from the magazine that comes with Viansa wine.  Jim is a member of their wine club.  Ribollita means twice-cooked or re-boiled in Italian.  Sounded to me like leftovers.  This is easily 2 meals, even with Jim eating.  The recipe does not give a serving amount.  We used it as a meal. 

Ingredients:

3 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed

1 small onion, peeled and roughly chopped

1 carrot, peeled and chopped

1 celery stalk, chopped

4 oz. pancetta, chopped (I found it pre-chopped at Trader Jo’s)

2 T EVOO (more required if you want to drizzle on the finished individual servings)

1 15 oz can whole peeled tomatoes

3 15 oz. cans cannellini beans, drained and rinsed

2 C chicken broth (I used 4, thought it was too thick)

1 sprig fresh rosemary

1 bunch kale, roughly chopped (I bought mine bagged and chopped) I used about ½ the bag.

½ C toasted bread crumbs  

Grated Parmesan

Directions:

1.      In a large pot over medium heat, sauté the first five ingredients in 2 T of EVOO for 5 minutes.

2.      Add the tomatoes, and their juices, along with the beans, broth and rosemary.  Simmer, covered, until the beans break apart, about an hour. 

3.      Add kale and cook for 5 to 7 minutes more. 

4.      Stir in the bread crumbs and serve, drizzled with EVOO and sprinkled with the cheese.

 I thought it could use a little heat, red pepper flakes or jalapeno.  Jim likes it the way it is.  I took the remaining ½ bag of kale, salted it and put it in my dehydrator.  Sometime last year, I made kale chips in the oven.  I remember we liked them.  However the way my system is now it is painful to retrieve.  Jonathan is going to fix that in the new site.