Cheap, soothing and plant-ful, ribollita offers a flavourful soother at any time of the year. You can chop and change with the vegetables a little, though the basics remain the same. Beans, greens, the soffrito trio of celery, onion and carrot, a little fresh tomato and the bread that transforms it from soup to a very joyful sludge. I think a more correct term might be potage.

Ribollita translates as “re-boiled”. Certainly not as glamorous a title as the esteemed Renaissance-spangled Tuscany region might otherwise command, Ribollita is a dish that holds it’s own with a strong, rustic povera charm and a generous pop of colour; the star of it’s own culinary galleria, without the Florentine queues. You can make it partly out of leftovers, re-boil it – the clue’s in the name – more than once to serve more than one meal. Simple to make, ten minutes at the most of chopping and slicing. It helps with the thickened texture if you have a blender, though I’m quite sure plenty of Nonne would frown at the suggestion. Without a blender you would create an equally tasty more brothy version.

Don’t be shy to use your own twists. I finished mine with grated vegan “Parmesan”, chopped fresh parsley and a few more drops of olive oil.

INGREDIENTS (Serves 2-4)

One stick of celery

One onion

One carrot

One leek

Two cloves of garlic

Around ten leaves of cabbage or equivalent kale/cavalo nero

1 tbsp olive oil

500mL vegetable stock

1/2 tsp salt

1 tbsp dried thyme or 1.5 fresh chopped thyme

Two tomatoes

Can of borlotti or cannelini beans

Two to three slices of bread, stale ciabatta is the ideal but any bread can be used

Grated vegan Parmesan to serve

METHOD

It’s handy to do all your chopping first and make your pint (500mL) of vegetable stock ready to use so you’re not delayed as you cook the soup.

Heat the oil in a large, heavy-bottomed pan. Add the chopped onion, celery, carrot and leek. Sauté for a few minutes until they start to soften and steam, then add the garlic and thyme. Keep it moving to ensure it doesn’t burn, if it’s catching or browning then turn the heat down.

Remove the seeds from the two tomatoes. I do this by cutting them in half and scooping out the flesh, which I often eat there and then as it feels wasteful to throw it out and it’s good for you. Chop the tomato flesh into little pieces, 1cm ish in size. Add this to the pan and sauté for few minutes, stirring the mixture a couple of times to combine everything. Add the vegetable stock and bring to the boil. Turn down to a simmer for 10 minutes.

If you have a blender or stick blender, remove around a third of the soup. Blend this and add it back in to the soup. This will give you a smooth and silky background. It’s a great tip for any soup, as an alterative to thickening with flour or cream.

Drain the can of beans and add them with the cabbage that you have sliced into ribbons, around 1cm wide. Continue to simmer the soup until the cabbage has wilted and the beans have heated through.

Season with salt to taste, I use around 1/2 teaspoon. Tear up your bread into pieces and add to the soup. Stir a few times and watch the magic happen as the bread becomes part of the soup. If you don’t have stale bread you can toast the bread first if it’s very fresh so it stays a bit lumpy and identifiable when it hits the liquid. The more traditional way to do this is to place the bread into the bottom of the serving bowl and ladle the soup on top. Both ways are equally good, in my opinion.

Serve by ladling into bowls and topping with grated vegan Parmesan, chopped fresh parsley and a few more golden drops of olive oil.

Choose a soup spoon and a have a blanket on standby for any subsequent lulling to sleep on the sofa, belly full and content*.

*DISCLAIMER: If you miss the end of the film, don’t come running to me. I probably fell asleep in the opening titles.