Ribolita for Vanessa

Once upon a time ribolita was a dread-worthy dish, like three day old tofu meat loaf, or the 6 bean chili that's been growing fur in the back of the fridge. Ribolita, a re-boil, was classically a peasant soup of leftovers, usually involving beans, cabbage, and a bone or the scraps and skins of ... well this is a vegan website so we don't need to go into those details. Suffice to say, ribolita is the quintessential rebirth of leftovers, but it has taken on new life as a dish of its own. Chefs like Mark Ladner and Michael Chiarello put ribolitas on there menus!

My ribolita is as peasant a soup as anyone has ever supped. It may not be on the menu at Lupa, but it is a soul warming stew that will warm the hearts of any scrooge or grinch. 

ZUPPA

1 onion, diced

5 cloves garlic, smashed

2 leeks, rinsed and chopped (if you use the stock recipe here, you can omit the leeks)

6 leaves savoy cabbage, torn by hand

6 leaves of tuscan kale, torn by hand
1 fennel, sliced (you can sub whatever you like or omit, but i love fennel)

1 celery root, diced (you can sub potatoes or omit)
2 sweet potatoes, peeled and diced

2 cans gigante beans (giant limas, but butter beans work great too)

garlicky croutons, see recipe below

3 qts Veggie stock, See recipe below or sub your favorite boxes

6 sage leaves, chopped

2 sprigs of thyme

2 sprigs of rosemary

1 bay leaf

1 lemon, cut in quarters
2 cups tomato puree or homemade tomato sauce

STOCK

2 leeks, cleaned, rough chopped

5 medium carrots

2 large onions

1 whole celery

1 acorn squash, or small pumpkin, cut in quarters and seeded

For the stock: if you are making it, saute the leeks at the bottom of a large pot for 6 minutes, or until soft and starting to brown.  Add 4qts of water to the pot, and then just toss the rest of your vegetables in. Bring the pot up to a boil, lower the heat to a bare simmer (that's when bubbles come slowly up the sides of the pot, but not up the middle) and walk away for an hour and a half. Kill the heat, strain off the liquid to save. I also like to save the vegetables from the stock. The carrots are perfect for making carrot soup! But that's another recipe.

For the soup: So you have stock, right? Souper! now get an 8 qt roasting pan and set your oven to 500 degrees. It sounds excessive, but it's the best way to make soup. Put your chopped onions and garlic (and leeks if you are using boxed stock) in your roasting pan and coat with extra virgin olive oil. Season with salt and pepper or chili flakes (I love using one or the other in the same fashion. It can turn one recipe into two, they are totally unique and both taste good with everything.) Put the roasting pan in the oven and let the contents caramelize, checking and stirring every 3 minutes. It shouldn't take more than ten minutes until your onions and garlic are caramelized. At this point, put on your oven mits and take the pan out of the oven. Add the lemon, fennel, savoy cabbage and black kale, season them with salt and pepper/chili and toss them together with the onions and garlic before returning to the oven. You want the kale and the cabbage to begin to char. They will turn brown and crispy in spots, like really good brussel sprouts. This may take another ten minutes.

Now let's say you don't have an 8qt roasting pan because vegans usually don't need to roast anything. You can do almost all of this on the stove in a large pot, but the lemon, the fennel, and the cabbages need to broil. There is no two ways about it. All of the magic happens when the cabbage gets charred. In fact, even if it burns a little, I think it still tastes better than if you were to just boil the cabbage in the soup, kind of like a good pizza crust. 

Pull out the lemon when they are nice and browned, and then you can add the beans (if they are canned, I don't drain them here, because the liquid from the can thickens the soup), tomato puree, herbs, stock, sweet potatoes, and celery root. Adjust the seasoning now, make sure your broth is nice and salty and spicy. Return the roasting pan to the oven and let it simmer for half an hour to 45 minutes. At this point its ready to eat. I like to ladle this over garlic crostini, but if you have some crusty old bread and want to stop here, just tear the bread up and pour the soup on top. Serve the charred lemon on the side.

Garlic Crostini:

I would do this one a day or so in advance. pre-heat your oven to 275. Slice a loaf of bread into one inch slices. Baguette or ciabatta work well for this, or pane pugliese, but my favorite is pane al sesamo. Spread the slices out on a cookie sheet, oil them generously and season with salt and pepper or chili flakes. Now put the bread in the oven. It will take around 45 minutes or so to get golden brown and delicious, and if after 45 minutes its not quite perfect, turn the temperature up to 325 and poke your head in every 3 minutes until its just right.  Now remove your bread and rub each piece with raw garlic. I like to break up a piece into a bowl and ladle the soup on top. Afterwards I break another piece on top of the soup to garnish, and squeeze a piece of charred lemon on top.

Serves 8 to 10