Bread soup is a traditional dish from Tuscan cuisine, similar to ribollita but simpler and made with basic ingredients. It is a rustic soup based on stale bread, vegetables, and legumes, perfect for colder days. Here’s how to prepare it:

Ingredients (for 4 people):

• 300 g stale Tuscan bread
• 200 g kale (cavolo nero)
• 200 g savoy cabbage (cavolo verza)
• 2 potatoes
• 2 carrots
• 1 celery stalk
• 1 onion
• 2 ripe tomatoes (or 200 g tomato puree)
• 300 g cooked cannellini beans
• 1 sprig of thyme
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 clove of garlic

Instructions:

Preparing the beans: If using dried beans, soak them for 8-12 hours, then cook them in plenty of salted water until tender. Reserve the cooking water for the soup.
Preparing the vegetables: Wash and chop all the vegetables into small pieces. Peel and finely chop the onion, dice the carrots and potatoes, slice the celery, and roughly chop the kale and savoy cabbage.
Cooking: In a large pot, sauté the chopped onion and the clove of garlic in a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil. Add the carrots, celery, and tomatoes, and let them sauté for a few minutes. Then add the kale, savoy cabbage, potatoes, and the beans, reserving some beans for garnish. 
Adding the broth: Pour the reserved bean cooking water or hot vegetable broth into the pot, enough to cover all the vegetables. Simmer for about 1 hour, stirring occasionally. Adjust with salt and pepper.
Assembling the bread soup: In a soup dish or directly in the pot, alternate layers of slices of stale bread with layers of vegetable and bean soup. Let the soup rest for a few hours (preferably overnight) to allow the bread to absorb the broth.
Reboiling (optional): For an extra touch, the next day you can "reboil" the soup: pour it into a pot and simmer again over low heat for about ten minutes.
Serving: Serve the bread soup piping hot, drizzling with extra virgin olive oil and freshly ground pepper. If desired, you can add the whole beans set aside for garnish.

Enjoy your meal!

Photo: Cortonaweb.net