Ingredients for 4 people:8 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil + 2 for the beans1 onion1 garlic clove of 2-3 sage leaves1 carrot2 stalks of celery1 potato150 g approx. savoy cabbage200 g approx. palm kale (or another similar kale/cabbage)150 g Swiss chard200 g dried Cannellini beans100 g approx. peeled tomatoes120 g approx. stale homemade bread1 hot chilli pepper (optional) salt pepper400 g plain Flour4 eggs1 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil1 pinch of salt100 g butter3 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil2 tbsp chopped chives salt grated pecorino cheese (1 tbsp per person)
Soak the beans for 12 hours in cold water; strain them and then cook them with a peeled clove of garlic, 2-3 sage leaves and 2 spoonfuls of olive oil, well covered with water, for roughly an hour over a low heat. Only add salt – preferably coarse, one small pinch – when they are cooked, just before turning off the heat, otherwise they remain too firm. In a deep pan, over a moderate heat, sauté the chilli pepper in pieces, and the onion, celery and carrot, all washed, cleaned and chopped. When the vegetables have softened, add the potato, peeled, washed and cut into small pieces. Squash the tomatoes in a bowl with a fork, and add them to the pan with their liquid. Add the cabbage, kale and chard as well, all washed, with their tough ribs removed and cut into strips. Now add the beans, puréed together with the water they were cooked in (after setting aside a ladle of whole beans), mix, put the lid on the pan and leave to simmer for about an hour. When this time is up, taste and, after seasoning with salt and pepper if required, add the whole beans set aside earlier on. Stir and remove from the heat. Now take a large bowl and put a layer of slices of bread in the bottom, pour a few ladles of the soup on top, cover with another layer of bread, ladle in some more soup… and so on until you have used up the ingredients. Leave to cool down, then cover and put in the fridge for at least 2 hours. Take the soup out of the fridge (it will have become semi-solid) and tip it into the pan again; Warm it over a moderate heat until it “ribolle” (= reboils), taking care that it doesn’t stick to the bottom and burn. Turn off the heat. Add another sprinkling of pepper (and/or chilli pepper), a drizzle of olive oil and, if you like, a few freshly sliced onion rings, and the Ribollita is ready! For the ravioli: heat some Ribollita – it’s best to only do a little at a time – in a frying pan, until it forms a golden brown crust. Leave it to cool down and, in the meanwhile, prepare the pasta. Pile the flour up and form a “well” in the centre; break the eggs into it, add the olive oil and a pinch of salt. Beat the eggs and oil together with a fork, slowly, taking the flour from the edges, a little at a time, and continue mixing. When the dough has become fairly compact, knead it with your hands incorporating all the flour. Shape it into a smooth, compact “ball”; cut off a piece and roll it out with a rolling pin (or with a pasta-making machine) until it’s approximately 2 mm thick, using a little flour so it doesn’t stick. Try to give the sheet of pasta an oval shape; when it’s ready, cut it into strips about 20 cm wide. You can use the rolling pin as a “ruler”, laying it on the sheet of pasta to measure it out. Use two spoons to place heaped spoonfuls of Ribollita along the rectangles of pasta, about 10 cm apart. To cover the filling, fold each strip over lengthways on top of itself; align the edges and, using your fingers, press down on the pasta between one heap of filling and the next to get all the air out (in this way the ravioli won’t open up while cooking). Cut the ravioli with a pasta wheel and carry on in the same way until you have used all the ingredients. Put a large saucepan on the stove with plenty of water. In a heavy-bottomed frying pan, large enough to contain the ravioli, melt the butter over a very low heat and then add the olive oil; immediately add 1½ spoonfuls of chopped chives, season with salt, stir and let them turn slightly golden. When the water comes to the boil, add salt, slide the ravioli in and when cooked (it only takes a few minutes, but to make sure taste them) strain them thoroughly. Carefully put them into the frying pan, stir them delicately with the sauce and turn off the heat. Serve straight away, nice and hot – in the frying pan if you like – sprinkled with the remaining chives and with grated pecorino cheese. Buon appetito!