SO...having been inspired by toyoko's recipe and the fact that ribollita just happens to be her androgenius twin dorothy's favorite soup, i was like, for sure, "i gotsta git me some o' dat." you'll see, though, that this entry follows more than a week after toyoko's posting because A) i am by no means an androgenius with the uncanny ability of cooking the same dish as either toyoko or dorothy on any given day; and B) i was out of potatoes.
russian butterball potatoes...check. laptop with toyoko's recipe handy...check.
however, anyone who knows me can attest to the fact that no matter how hard i try, my ADD-ness makes it absolutely impossible for me to completely read--much less follow any one recipe ever. so here's what happened (working backwards with what i can recall of the recipe because it's the only way i'll ever be able to remember the ingredients):
disclaimer #1: yikes! i just realized that i neither measure nor time anything ever...sorry.
da recipe:
1. since i don't have a pressure cooker, i simmered the cannellini beans until just before they reached desired texture. be sure you remove them from heat even a little before that because you'll add them to the soup later, where they'll cook still further and soak up some o' dat soup-y good flava.
2. chop and sauté onions, followed by carrots and celery, in olive oil.
3. add minced garlic (and this is where i first wandered away from toyoko's recipe because i accidentally threw in a chile de arbol out of habit) and cavolo nero. (next mishap: i forgot the potatoes.) then add the canned diced tomatoes (which i crushed with my manly fist because seeing perfectly machine-cut squares of tomatoes in food bothers me for some reason).
4. add the beans and (ideally) their soaking water (<--i accidentally threw this out and realized as my liquid gold was rushing down the drain) because you want those good starches to add body to your soup. then add however much more water you want...i brought the water level maybe about 2" above the ingredients?
note: i can't leave anything i cook alone and am, therefore, constantly adjusting flavors, adding more stuff, covering up mistakes, etc...repeat, repeat.
5. in goes a vegetable bouillon cube...it was even an italian one!
6. next, two sprigs of thyme and one bay leaf (but i removed the bay leaf after about 15mins because bay leaf overkill drives me nuts).
7. (toyoko and dorothy, don't read this part!!) remembering that my italian friend angela told me that she often simmers a parmesan rind in her soups for that extra oomph, i thought, "that still technically falls within the definition of VEGfriends, right?" however, i just noticed that the heading on this Blogger site reads "androgeniuses... cook... VEGAN... science!" ...whoOps! ...okay, so parmesan rind--optional. :p
8. add a bit of salt and pepper--not the full amount, maybe just a tad shy of how salty you ultimately want it to be, remembering that it still needs to simmer further. i tend to pre-season on the early side to ensure that tough ingredients like beans get to absorb some o' dat salty goodness. mmHMM.
9. in a blender, first add toasted bread (mine needed no toasting since it was a super-stale, rock hard baguette leftover from december...or was it november? hahaha...i learned how not to waste bread from toyoko!), followed by whatever portion of ribollita ingredients and liquid you want to purée.
10. return puréed contents in blender to pot and mix evenly.
11. season with salt and pepper as you like, simmering for a bit longer until ribollita is where you want it to be.
12. finally, ladle soup into a bowl and drizzle with a pepper-y olive oil. oh! and some parsley.
question: it just occured to me--was i supposed to put more toasted bread into the bottom of the bowl??? if so, oops again...
ingredientz: i have a small appetite and get bored of eating too much of any one thing, so i adjusted the ingredients to make a smaller batch of ribollita.
1c - cannellini beans
1 - spanish onion, finely chopped (i'm not 100% over my onion phobia, so i chop them smaller, in hopes that they'll melt and just disappear)
2 - carrots, chopped into 1/2" wedges
1 - celery stalk, chopped into 1/2" pieces
1 - chile de arbol, crumbled with seeds included
3 - garlic cloves, minced
3/4 of a bunch - cavolo nero, chopped into 1" pieces
1 - bouillon cube
2 - thyme sprigs--next time, i'll just add them earlier along with the chile de arbol before step 2, like normal cooks.
1 - parmesan rind (like i said, totally optional!)
pepper-y olive oil for drizzling
chopped parsley
disclaimer #2: i cannot honestly say that no organisms were harmed in the making of this soup because the super-organic cavolo nero i bought from the farmers market had hell-of tiny silver bugs (those aren't aphids, are they?) on it, and though i tried to wash the leaves off as best as i could but......more protein anyone?
OMG! this looks so good! i can't wait to try this in person :-)
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