Ribollita

Name: Ribollita
Total time: 45 min
Yield: 6 servings
Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients: Dried breadcrumbs; Tinned cannellini beans; Olive oil; Onion; Carrot; Celery; Garlic; Tinned plum tomatoes; Spinach; Chicken stock; Black pepper

395 kcal a serving, against 512 for the traditional version. That is 117 kcal off, or 23%, with 23.5g of protein. Serves 6. 45 minutes.

What the traditional version is

A thick, hearty Tuscan stew made from leftover saltless bread, cooked cannellini beans, cavolo nero and a base of root vegetables. It traditionally relies on a massive pour of olive oil at the end for richness and raw calorie load.

What changed, and what each change costs

120g of olive oil down to 30g

That much oil is over 1,000 calories of pure fat. I keep just enough to gently fry the base vegetables and give a tiny hint of richness.

What it costs you. You lose the gorgeous oily slick on the surface of the bowl. The mouthfeel is definitely less luxurious and a bit less authentic.

200g of bread down to 80g of dried breadcrumbs

The traditional dish uses huge torn chunks of stale loaf to bulk it out. I use a handful of dried breadcrumbs purely to thicken the broth, cutting out a mountain of empty carbohydrates.

What it costs you. It becomes a very thick soup rather than a wet bread pudding. The chunky texture of soaked crusts is gone entirely.

800g of tinned cannellini beans up to 1,200g

Beans bring the protein and the fibre. Blending half of them gives you the creamy, thick texture that the massive amounts of bread and oil used to provide.

What it costs you. You have to wash an extra pan or a blender. Tinned beans also cost slightly more than old stale bread.

Cavolo nero out, 300g of spinach in

I use spinach as a direct stand-in because it wilts in 2 minutes. Cavolo nero is traditional but it takes 40 minutes of boiling to stop tasting like tough shoe leather.

What it costs you. You lose the earthy, chewy texture of black kale. Spinach is softer, sweeter and breaks down much faster.

What goes in it

The ingredients, without the quantities. The weights are what the figures below are computed from, and they are in the book.

Dried breadcrumbs
Tinned cannellini beans
Olive oil
Onion
Carrot
Celery
Garlic
Tinned plum tomatoes
Spinach
Chicken stock
Black pepper

How it starts

Dice the onion, carrot and celery finely.
Crush the garlic and stir it in for 2 minutes until it smells great.
Drain the cannellini beans thoroughly.

The rest of the method, and every weight, is in Authentic-ish Italian.

The numbers

Per serving	Traditional	Lightened
Calories	512	395
Protein	20.2g	23.5g
Fat	25.6g	11g
Saturated fat	4g	1.9g
Carbohydrate	53.3g	54g
Protein per 100 kcal	3.9g	5.9g

Every figure is computed from the recipe's own weighed ingredient list against public food composition databases. The appendix in Authentic-ish Italian prints the exact database row used for each ingredient, so any number here can be checked. How every number is computed sets out the method.

Allergens. gluten, celery.

The method is in the book

So: a practical winter soup for modern life. A completely authentic Tuscan experience was never on the table once the fat came out. You get all the comfort of a heavy stew with a much higher protein for the calories and a fraction of the fat. It'll keep you full until dinner without making you need a nap.

The quantities and the method for this dish are in Authentic-ish Italian, along with 59 more. Buy the paperback