Ribollita Soup in Florence 2024-2025
Inventive Florentines once found a delicious way out of poverty by reboiling soup with staple bread
Best time: October–April
Ribollita is a traditional Tuscany dish that looks like mash. Actually this is a thick vegetable soup mixed with staple bread. Ribolitta is compounded of beans, onions, garlic, carrots, tomatoes, potatoes, red chillis, cabbages, celery and thyme. Depending on the season, ingredients may vary. As soon as the soup is finishes, it is poured over a few layers of bread. The name “ribollita” literally means “reboiled” and indeed the soup is not ready for serving until it is reheated. While reboiling such a dense soup a cook adds some olive oil into the hole made in the middle of the dish. It is said that ribollita was once invented by poor Italian farmers. It explains the usage of staple bread and the the very reboiling. Obviously, they had to reboil the soup so that it could be edible during a few days.
