Look who's back: and she's making soup. FROM THE NORTH OF ITALY: ribollita

CIAO TO ALL!  After a long hiatus, Annalena is coming back.  Many factors were involved in her leaving, and many in her return.  Let's just discuss the return.
We've now been living in a difficult regime for nearly two years.  Annalena has her own views of the political situation which she will TRY (and will not always succeed) in editing out.  She has noticed several things, however, and she asks that if anyone has anything to add to what follows, please put in a comment. 
People are cooking more.  That might be Annalena's crowd who, like her, is aging.  People are collecting and gathering so as to eat together more.  And there is much, MUCH more of an interest in actual "standing at the stove and cooking."  When one of Annalena's friends told her that he was making his own meatballs, and going to the butcher to make sure the meat had been mixed and ground to his specs,  la donna was ready to burst with pride.  And happiness.  From where comes this?  Where are you all getting your interest in cooking?  Please share with us, as Annalena shares this classic dish with you.
"Ribollita," based on its name alone, means solely  "re-boiled," and indeed, we will get to that step.  This soup, however, is so much more than that.  First, let Annalena tell you:  this is a TUSCAN soup.  And if you have any notions of Italian food, you can tell that from the ingredients list:  tons of greens, and beans.  And no garlic.  And bread.  These are ALL staples of the Tuscan kitchen.  If you eat a meal in Tuscany, and you do not get beans, and/or greens, you have not been fed adequately, period.

This soup, which is very much a meal, is thick, filling, and frankly, ragazzi, cheap.  Fortunate as we are here, Annalena went to it solely to try to find new ways to cook kale.  See, her CSA box delivers forth a lovely assortment of fruit and vegetables every week.  The selection varies except for one thing:  KALE.  There is always KALE. 

Does anyone remember the song with the line "greens, greens, nuthin but greens?"  Well, Annalena wanted to change it, because kale is far from her favorite vegetable.  The craze for kale smoothies  "kale Caesar salads,  "  kale omelets and (yes, she saw it), kale ice cream have bothered her. But.. it is a very Italian thing that we do not waste food.  So, she looked, and looked.  And one solution was right in her own back yard.  EVERY Northern Italian makes ribollita.  And there are that many recipes.  One of Annalena's favorite restaurants (Hearth) makes it for the fall and winter, every year.  They have a small ceremony when the first pot is made, and one when they take it off the menu.  But Annalena, who does not order soup in restaurants, orders this.  So, as soup season is upon us, she decided to make it.  She surveyed many recipes, by many people of whom you have heard (Lida, Marianne, etc), and some you haven't  (Marco, and others), and spoke to people.   She took the essences.

There are a few musts, and ONE must not.  The soup MUST contain Italian kale (cavolo nero, black kale, or dinosaur kale)

It must also contain whole beans, and bean puree

 And it must also contain "old" bread. (not hard as a rock, moldy bread, but bread a day or two past its prime.  Sort of like Annalena):

Everything else varies, EXCEPT for the broth, which we will discuss below.  Ok, so now we do our prep work.  First, you have to chop the kale.  And you have a lot of  it.  So, Annalena suggests tearing the kale off of the stem, not worrying about any sort of uniformity, and then cutting it small, small, small.  Think of adding herbs to a dish:   you want them chopped fine.  But if you get tired or bored, don't worry.  This soup is forgiving

You are also going to need to do the same thing with cabbage, and swiss chard.  Now, on these, what you see above, is spitzkohl, which is a  German cabbage.  See the point?  That's the "spitz".  Annalena used this because when Italians use cabbage, they use Savoy cabbage.  It's softer than the green stuff we use for coleslaw, etc.  Savoy wasn't available, but spitz was.  If you don't have or don't care for swiss chard, use baby spinach, or full sized spinach, or beet greens, anything you like of the dark leafy green family.  You could even use more kale.  Essentially, you are looking for around 8-10 cups of the chopped kale, and then 8-10 cups of the other stuff.  You read that right kindern:  16-20 cups.  It's not that much.  If you doubt Annalena, someday, cook down a pound of spinach. See what you get:

That, incidentally, is Annalenas biggest bowl.  We call it the baby basinette, because yes, it is that big.  And we're saving the greens until we prepare the aromatics. 

What we want are 2 cups of chopped onions and a cup each of celery and carrots, also chopped.  Annalena does her onions by hand, and uses the food processor for the carrots and onions.  These go into a pot, with - no, you did not read this wrong - 1/2 cup of olive oil, at medium heat

While you are cooking that,  mix up about 1/4-1/2 cup of tomato paste, with the same amount of water:

When the onions, carrots and celery have softened a bit, stir in the pureed beans:

Now, a word on these beans, ragazzi.   Annalena always has cooked beans in her kitchen.  She just does.   She freezes them and pulls the out as needed.  She also had fresh shell beans.  So she divided them.  You do not have to do so, and usually, you don't.  Tuscans don't bother with dividing them:  they cook up a pound of dried beans, and use four cups as puree, and two cups .  You could do that too.

Now, after you've stirred the puree around,  and after adding a nice pinch of salt, you will add the tomato paste solution and stir that.  And now:  the whole beans, and the greens:

Let Annalena be honest, ragazzi.  You will NOT get everything in the pot at once.  And that is fine.  Put in what you can, and then clamp the lid shut.  Lower the heat and let this mess cook for 10 minutes.  The greens will cook down some:

When  you have added everything, again, clamp things for ten minutes.  We've added no liquid yet, and now, we're going to do that, via one of the big secrets of  Italian cooking:  "Easter broth."

See that big clump in the middle of the liquid? It's a rind from parmesan cheese.  Thrifty Italians have been flavoring their vegetable soups with this, forever.  You should too.  If you are a vegan, or lactose intolerant,  you  might rethink this, but no real cheese is going in.  And do not ask Annalena why it's called Easter broth.  It. just. is.

A practical tip: your pot is really full, so add the liquid (8 cups of it, ), by gently pouring it down the side, rather than the middle.  Now, just go away, after you put the top on it, lowered the heat, and do something useful or fun, for 30 minutes.  You'll get:

Turn off the heat.  WE'RE NOT DONE YET.  We've "bollito'd"  but where's the "ri?"  Well, let the soup sit for as long as you can.  IF you can wait for a day,  that's ideal.  But wait at least an hour.  Now ,remember that bread:

Take the softer white center out, and break it into small pieces.  When you have 3 cups, mix it into the soup.  Stir it, bring the heat to a slow simmer, and cook for yet another 30 minutes.  And:

Now you haven't added much salt, so taste it now, and add what you like. 

This soup will be MUCH better after a day of sitting, and it will be DIVINE with a slug of green olive oil (Tuscan, if you have it.  Sicilian is also good), and some grated parmesan and black pepper.

An ideal feature of this soup, as you can see, is that it makes TONS.  Annalena had four quarts of it, and was able to gift 5 of her friends, with homemade soup. 

We need to do simple acts of kindness for all of our friends.  And who can turn down homemade soup?  Make this for you and your loved ones, ragazzi.  Annalena thinks you will find it very rewarding, as well as delcious.

By the way, for you calorie counters out there: yes,  there is half a cup of olive oil in this soup.  4 ounces.  And you're serving at least 8 people. So they are getting half an ounce of olive oil, and some good bread.  Lots of fiber (Oh, you will be saying "thats the soup" for a while), and lots of protein.  Go buy some kale, ragazzi. Find the tomato paste and beans in your cupboard.  AND GET TO WORK.