Ribollita

This recipe is a variation on a recipe by Giada De Laurentiis. It's pretty heavily modified, though.

Ingredients:

• olive oil
  
• 1 onion, chopped
  
• 1 carrot, chopped
  
• 2tbsp crushed garlic
  
• 1tbsp tomato paste
  
• 1 15oz can diced tomatoes
  
• 1 10oz package frozen spinach
  
• 1 15oz can cannellini beans or "great northern beans" (what's the diff?), drained
  
• 4c vegetable stock
  
• 1c water
  
• 1 piece Parmesan or Romano rind
  
• bay leaves (1-3), parsley, basil, maybe some thyme, salt, and pepper
  
• bread
  

Heat some oil in a large pan or soup pot. Throw in the onion, carrot, garlic, salt, and pepper. When the onion is translucent, add the tomato paste and stir. Then add tomatoes, spinach, beans, herbs, stock and water, and cheese rind. Simmer, stirring periodically, for about 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, toast some bread in the oven (with a little olive oil) at ~350. We use a Madison sour dough, though we've also used traditional Ciabatta. If it's slightly stale, all the better. When it's done toasting, put a piece of bread at the bottom of a bowl and ladle soup over it. Top with more grated cheese and enjoy.

Thoughts: Since we started making this a few months ago it's become a standard. Sometimes we double up on the onions. We've gone as high as 15oz on the frozen spinach, too. This soup is difficult to mess up since most of the main ingredients are just "one can" or "one package". Everyone who's tried this soup has liked it a lot. The original calls for pancetta, though we do it vegetarian style. Still, it might be worth trying some time.

Disaster Index: 1/10 - The only downside is that there are a lot of ingredients I don't usually have. Fortunately, they're mostly non-perishable, so I can stock up and use them bit by bit.