Ribollita — a plant-based Italian recipe by BOSH!
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Ribollita

Ribollita is one of those recipes we keep coming back to, especially when it's cold outside and we want something that genuinely feels like a hug in a bowl. It's a thick, hearty Tuscan bread soup packed with cannellini beans, kale, and chunky veg, and the ciabatta breaks down into the broth to make it gloriously rich and almost stew-like. The flavours are deep and savoury, with sage and thyme running through the whole thing, and it gets better the longer it sits. Honestly, this is the kind of food we could eat on repeat all winter long.

Cook: 45 min
Serves 2

Before You Start

  • Large pan
  • Microplane or box grater
  • Colander

Ingredients

  • 4 tbsp good olive oil, plus extra to finish
  • 1 red onion
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 1 large carrot
  • 1 celery stick
  • 1 small dried chilli
  • 10g sage
  • 10g thyme
  • 1 x 400g can of plum tomatoes
  • 1 x 400g can of cannellini beans
  • 400g cavolo nero
  • 150g stale ciabatta

Method

1

Prepare the ingredients

  • Peel and finely dice the red onion
  • Trim, peel and coarsely grate the carrot
  • Trim and dice the celery
  • Pick and roughly chop the sage
  • Pick and roughly chop the thyme leaves
  • Drain and rinse the beans
  • Destem the kale, dice the stalks and finely slice the leaves
  • Cut the ciabatta into 1 inch cubes
2

Start the base

  • Warm the olive oil in a large pan over a medium heat | Add the onion to the pan and stir for 2 minutes
  • Add the carrot, celery, chilli and garlic to the pan and cook, stirring regularly for 15 minutes until very soft
  • Add the sage and thyme and stir for 2 minutes
3

Get everything simmering

  • Add the plum tomatoes to the pan, half-fill the empty can with water and pour into the pan
  • Stir to mix, turn the heat up to a gentle simmer and cook for 10 minutes
  • Add the beans and cavolo nero to the pan, and stir for 2-3 minutes to mix
  • Add the bread and 500ml of water to the pan, fold to combine, turn up the heat, bring to a boil, turn down the heat to low and simmer for 15-30 minutes
4

Time to serve

  • Taste the soup, season to perfection, ladle half the soup into a bowl and serve immediately with a drizzle of olive oil
  • Transfer the remaining soup to a sealable container and put the container in the fridge for later in the week

Tips & Variations

  • Use day-old bread: Slightly stale ciabatta works even better here because it holds its shape a little longer before melting into the soup. Fresh bread goes a bit gluey, so if yours is a day or two old, that's actually ideal.
  • Don't skip the kale stalks: We know it's tempting to just use the leaves, but dicing the stalks and cooking them in early adds a really nice texture and means you're not wasting anything. They soften down completely by the time it's ready.
  • Make it tomorrow: This is genuinely one of those recipes that tastes even better the next day once everything has had time to mingle. Make a big batch, leave it overnight, and just reheat it gently with a splash of water if it's thickened up too much.

Why This Works

The real magic here is the ciabatta. It sounds a bit odd to chuck bread into a soup, but it soaks up all that tomatoey, herby broth and thickens everything up into something way more satisfying than a standard vegetable soup. We also find that taking your time on the base, getting the onion, carrot, and celery properly soft and sweet before anything else goes in, makes a massive difference to the final depth of flavour. Trust us on this one.