Ribollita!!

I'm not even remotely italian. My lineage is mostly Irish (southern, the Kellys) and Ulster Scots (Thompson from the northern part of the island with a tiny bit of Bohemian (Czech from my grandfather Rokusek) tossed in just to give me a dark look about the eyes when I'm in a bad mood.

But like enlightened people everywhere, I love Italian food and on this false Spring Birthday weekend evening (yee gawds, 71 degree out in January) I decided to have a go at a Ribollita (one of the recipes in 12 Recipes, by Cal Peternel). It has everything I love in it and sounds perfect -- light, hearty and it has one recommendation I really love -- that it is excellent piping hot, but is even greater on day 2, 3 and 4.

So I started a huge pot of it.

First problem, it calls for a pile of stale bread chunks to add for texture and thickness at the end and I'm out of bread and I was too embarrassed to go knock on my neighbor's door and ask for some stale bread. So Patty researched and found we could fake it with a fresh loaf of Acme Bread, torn into chunks and baked for 15 mins or so at 350 degrees to dry it out. Pro tip: It works!

Crisis averted.

Then it gets fun. Onion and cumin and garlic and celery and carrots cooked till softened. Add some chopped tomatoes, while or brown beans (I found something called "pink beans" -- so sue me) stock and chopped kale*. Being Italian, of course it gets Oregano and Basil and plenty of cracked black pepper. Last step is that faux stale Ciabatta loaf with the heat turned off to let the soup soak into the bread chunks. 

*i also tossed in some finely diced crooked neck squash just because.

Kabwango, it's a warm, hearty soup for a coolish evening. Cal says it's even better on day two, so drop on by the ranch tomorrow and help me find out.