Pressure Cooker Ribollita With Smoked Mozzarella Toasts

By Sarah DiGregorio

Published January 23, 2020

  • Christopher Testani for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews.
Media 1 of 1
Total Time
2 hours
Rating
4(651)
Comments
Read comments

This classic Italian vegetable stew is a wonderful way to revive leftover cooked vegetables and stale bread (ribollita means “reboiled” in Italian). You can prepare it in a pot following a more traditional method, but here, a pressure cooker makes it possible to cook dried beans relatively quickly without having to soak them. Thanks to a quick sauté in olive oil, the vegetables become silky and almost disappear into the soup. If you’d like to add leftover cooked vegetables, throw them in with the greens at the very end so they don’t overcook.

  • or to save this recipe.

  • Subscriber benefit: Give recipes to anyone

    As a subscriber, you have 10 gift recipes to give each month. Anyone can view them - even nonsubscribers. Learn more.

    Subscribe

  • Share this recipe

  • Print this recipe

    or to print this recipe.

Advertisement

Ingredients

Yield:6 to 8 servings (about 8 cups)

FOR THE SOUP

  • ¼ cup olive oil, plus more for drizzling

  • 1 large yellow or red onion, finely chopped

  • Kosher salt and black pepper

  • 1 large leek, trimmed, white and light green parts sliced

  • 3 celery stalks, finely chopped

  • 1 small fennel bulb, trimmed, cored and finely chopped, fronds reserved

  • 14 garlic cloves, smashed and roughly chopped

  • 2 dried bay leaves

  • 1 teaspoon red-pepper flakes, plus more for serving

  • 1 cup dry white wine

  • 5 cups chicken or vegetable stock

  • 1 ½ cups dried white beans, such as cannellini or great Northern (no need to soak)

  • 1 (15-ounce) can crushed tomatoes

  • 3 fresh thyme sprigs or 1 teaspoon dried thyme

  • 1 fresh rosemary sprig or ½ teaspoon dried rosemary

  • 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (from about ½ lemon)

  • 1 bunch kale, chard or collards (about 12 ounces), stemmed and finely chopped, or 1 (10-ounce) bag frozen chopped spinach or kale

  • 2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar, preferably aged

FOR THE TOASTS

  • 8 slices crusty bread, for serving

  • 1 garlic clove, cut in half

  • Olive oil

  • 8 ounces smoked or regular mozzarella, cut into 8 (¼-inch-thick) slices

Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (6 to 8 servings)

58 grams carbs; 27 milligrams cholesterol; 552 calories; 12 grams monosaturated fat; 3 grams polyunsaturated fat; 7 grams saturated fat; 24 grams fat; 12 grams fiber; 1062 milligrams sodium; 25 grams protein; 10 grams sugar

Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

Powered by

Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Turn on the sauté setting of a 6- to 8-quart electric pressure cooker and heat the oil. Add the onion, season with salt, and cook, stirring occasionally, until limp and translucent, 6 to 8 minutes. Add the leek, celery and fennel, season with salt, and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened and fragrant, about 8 minutes. Add the chopped garlic, bay leaves, red-pepper flakes and white wine; season with a generous amount of pepper. Stir well and let the wine come to a simmer before turning off the heat.

  2. Step 2

    Add the stock, beans, tomatoes, thyme, rosemary and lemon juice. Cook on high pressure until the beans are creamy, 50 minutes to 1 hour.

  3. Step 3

    Allow the pressure to release naturally for 10 minutes, then release the remaining pressure manually. Turn on the sauté setting. Remove and discard the bay leaves and herb sprigs (if using). Stir in the greens and vinegar.

  4. Step 4

    Let the greens cook, stirring occasionally, while you make the toasts: Turn on the broiler. Rub the bread slices with the halved garlic and drizzle them with olive oil. Position a rack 6 inches from the broiler, and toast the slices until very light golden, 1 to 2 minutes. Add 1 slice of mozzarella to each toast and broil until softened and browned in spots.

  5. Step 5

    Season the soup to taste with salt and pepper. Divide the soup among bowls, adding a mozzarella toast in each bowl. Top with the reserved fennel fronds and black pepper or red-pepper flakes, if desired.

Private Notes

Leave a Private Comment on this recipe and see it here.

Ratings

4 out of 5
651 user ratings
Your rating

or to rate this recipe.

Have you cooked this?

or to mark this recipe as cooked.

Comments

Lauren Fitzgerald

This was delicious! My only tweak is to pressure-cook for 50 minutes, stir (so the uncooked beans at the top get integrated), and pressure-cook for another 15 or so. I also didn't bother with the mozzerella: grating parm into the soup was fine and toasting and rubbing the bread with garlic was enough (and more Tuscan). As close to ribollita as I am likely to get on my own!

Haiku

I would encourage people to substitue liberally and not worry too much about lacking some of the ingredients. This is a great recipe for pantry cooking in time of coronavirus (I did also get a fresh veggie delivery which helps!). I used fresh spinach as the greens and canned beans instead of dry. No fennel, celery, bay leaves or rosemary, but I had the other ingredients. Pressure cooked for only 20 minutes. Made for a delicious meal... well probably 5 meals or so!

MoMama

Tasty! I will reduce the wine a bit next time as it as more prominent than I wanted. I couldn't bring myself to use 14 cloves of garlic, 4 large cloves was plenty. My beans cooked through but I did take the advice of another commenter and first pressure cooked for 45 min., opened, stirred and then pressure cooked for another 15. I had a feeling my 4 yo wouldn't eat as is so I buzzed a 1/2 of final product with a stick blender, used as a sauce on the mozzarella toasts with more spinach. Homerun.

Ma

I love this recipe and come back to it often during sweater weather. I always add a Parmesan rind before pressure cooking, sometimes two, and otherwise deviate as my crisper drawer necessitates (that is I will add extra veggies if they need a home, like cabbage) but am always faithful to the spirit of the recipe. Right now I’m making it for a friend who just had a baby. Do use balsamic at the end, or more lemon, or both, and maybe extra chili flakes on the table. Feels like a hug.

Galit

After reading comments about cooking time for beans, I decided to adhere to the guidance I have followed for many years. I did not add salt until after the beans were cooked. They were soft and creamy after exactly 50 minutes. I also threw in a Parmesan cheese rind, which added depth to the flavor

Mavis Racing

Delicious. If you can't get or can't afford fresh fennel where you live, a quarter teaspoon of anise seed (plus some extra celery) is a decent surrogate.

Private comments are only visible to you.

Recipe Tags

or to save this recipe.