DEAR SPRINGFIELD MAMA

Ribollita or “bread soup”: This frugal and humble soup makes me think of a candlelit table in a crumbling Tuscan apartment and I cannot tell you why… but I think it has something to do with the Italian word “sprezzatura,” which means the art of making difficult things look effortless. It’s usually used in fashion, when someone makes a stylish look out of poor materials. But I think of it when I read about ribollita. 

“Ribollita” means “reboiled,” and is said to trace back to Tuscan servants who would scrape the leftovers of a richer family’s minestrone and take it home to “reboil” it with their own garden veggies or herbs. They would thicken the soup with stale bread, which melts into the broth and makes it creamy without the dairy. This recipe, a good framework to follow, calls for a loaf of ciabatta bread. But it pains me to imagine anyone buying fresh bread for ribollita. It’s what becomes of the dried-up bits of past loaves you’ve been collecting in a gallon-sized bag for the freezer. My favorite food writer, Tamar Adler, says that one does not buy ingredients for ribollita. One already has them.

Speaking of having bread around… I’m an avid bread baker, but not a fancy one. My cousin recently tipped me off to this incredibly simple bread recipe — Miracle No-Knead Bread — perfect for non-bakers. I mix it up at night before bed, then bake it sometime in the morning. Make a double batch sometime this week and you’ll have sandwich bread, toast, and plenty leftover for ribollita!

Frugal tip: Cook dried cannellini beans overnight in a crockpot to cut down on cost. Put the dried beans in the pot and cover with at least 2 inches of water. The next morning, put the beans and their broth in the fridge until you’re ready to make dinner. The beans make their own broth, so you can skip the recipe’s vegetable broth or just add a couple boullion cubes to deepen the bean broth’s flavor at soup time.

More easy dinner ideas: