Here’s a great way to eat loads of veggies and use up stale bread at the same time. Hearty soups like this, which also include beans, are typical of Tuscany and in this episode Adorna shows us her version.
The vegetables can vary according to the season or what you have in the fridge, but a constant is the addition of cabbage, beans, and bread:
Start with 150g dried cannellini beans, soaked overnight and then boiled in plenty of water until tender. Keep the cooking liquid. This equates to a 400g tin, if you’re in a hurry.
Chop 1 red onion, 2 sticks of celery (include the leafy ends), 1 leek, parsley and basil together, then fry in plenty of vegetable oil (or olive oil if you wish) in a capacious casserole dish / dutch oven / or saucepan.
While the vegetables soften, puree the beans. Add more water if necessary so the result is the consistency of single cream. As a variation, you could also keep some whole and add these to the soup with the cabbage. Warm this up gently – bean puree sticks very easily.
Once softened, after about 5 minutes, season generously with salt, pepper, and 2 tablespoons of tomato puree. Add about 1 litre of vegetable stock to begin with (you may need to add more water later; you want very solid chunky soup with some liquid – it is not a stew) and continue to add chopped vegetables of your choice. Adorna used: 20 green beans, 2 carrots, 2 zucchini, 2 potatoes, and half a sliced Savoy cabbage.
Leave this to simmer for about 30 minutes, stirring frequently, until the potatoes are soft. Now add the bean puree. Check the seasoning.
Slice half a stale country loaf (you may need more, depending on the size of your serving dish).
In another capacious pot, add some of the soup followed by a single layer of bread. Repeat until the pan is full. Stab each layer as you go with a fork. Leave for 10 minutes for the bread to go soggy. Serve with a dribble of extra virgin olive oil. This is even better the next day.