Kris > wrote:

> Ribollita! Italian soup with bits of pancetta, cannelini beans,
> carrots, spinach & tomato in broth. Very hearty & warming on a cold
> night.

That's convalescent fare, an emaciated minestrone perhaps, but not
ribollita.

Here is the real ribillita, from
<http://www.divinacucina.com/code/ribollita.html>

Victor

Ribollita (Tuscan Vegetable and Bread Soup)

Tuscan cuisine is famous for giving new life to leftovers. This dish is
a perfect example. An icon of Tuscan cuisine, ribollita literally means
"reboiled." It's difficult to find an authentic ribolitta because it
takes 3 days to prepare. Minestrone is made the first day and eaten as
is. The second day the leftover soup is layered with thin slices of
bread (or toasted bread rubbed with garlic) and baked with thin slices
of red onion on top. The third day the leftovers are reboiled.

Recipes for minestrone vary from region to region, restaurant to
restaurant, and household to household. Most recipes are based upon
regional produce. The most important ingredient is Tuscan minestrone is
cavolo nero, or a winter black cabbage. Its leaves range in color from
dark green to almost black. Once grown only in Tuscany, enterprising
farmers in California's Salinas Valley are now growing it along with
Royal Rose radicchio. If you cannot find black cabbage, substitute
kale, chard, or use only Savoy cabbage.

Here's the recipe!

4 tablespoons olive oil
1 red onion, chopped
1 leek, white part only, chopped
1 garlic clove, chopped
4 carrots, sliced into half-inch rounds
4 zucchini, sliced into half-inch rounds
One-quarter whole Savoy cabbage, shredded and chopped
1 bunch cavolo nero or kale
1 small bunch spinach, shredded and chopped
4 potatoes, peeled and cut into one-half inch cubes
1 cup green beans, cut into bite-size pieces
2 cups Tuscan white beans, one-half cup pureed and one-half cup whole
2 tablespoons coarse sea salt or kosher salt
4 tablespoons tomato paste
1 pound stale Italian bread, sliced

Heat the olive oil in a large pot and sauté the onion and leek together
over low heat until they begin to burn slightly. Add the garlic and
sauté for 1 minute. Add all the remaining vegetables. Season with sea
salt and stir to mix in the onions and leeks evenly. Cover and cook for
20 minutes or until the vegetables have reduced in volume by half. Stir
again and cover with water to the top of the pot. The more water you
add, the more broth you will have with the soup. Bring to a boil and
then lower the heat. Add the tomato paste and stir to dissolve. Cover
and cook the soup for 1 hour. Add the Tuscan beans.

This is the minestrone soup. The next day layer the soup in a deep
baking dish with the stale bread and bake. Top with thinly sliced red
onions before baking.

The next day, if there's any soup left over, reboil the soup, stirring
well to break up the bread slices. The soup should be thick enough to
eat with a fork! It's served with the traditional drizzle of extra
virgin olive oil on top.