Tomato and Cannellini Panade

Based on a recipe from the kitchn blog. Very similar to ribollita.

Ingredients

• 1 onion, diced
  
• 2tbsp minced garlic
  
• 28oz can of diced tomatoes in juice
  
• 1c chicken broth (or vegetable)
  
• 1tbsp brown sugar
  
• 1 bay leaf
  
• pinch of anise
  
• 1tsp oregano
  
• 1tsp thyme
  
• 3-5 slices of good, crusty bread, cubed
  
• 16oz can cannellini beans, rinsed
  
• 1/2c parmesan
  
• salt and pepper to taste
  

Saute the onion in olive oil (with a pinch of salt) until translucent. Add the garlic and saute until fragrant - 30 seconds. Add the tomatoes & juices, and the broth along with the brown sugar, bay leaf, and anise. Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer for 10 minutes. Fish out the bay leaf and add the bread and beans. Stir for about 5 minutes, until the bread is mushy. Add a little more broth (1/4 to 1/2c) if needed, and stir some more. The goal is to get something only a LITTLE soupy - the bread soaks up most of the soup, so it's more of a stew. After you've adjusted this to taste, stir in the cheese and see if it doesn't need more salt or some pepper. Serve!

Thoughts: pretty great, but Claire and I agree that it could use some sort of greens. Maybe some frozen spinach? It would be a cinch to toss 5-10oz of frozen chopped spinach. On the plus side, it's a simple recipe and it's easy to adapt to be veg friendly. It's really quite good - I think I prefer it to ribollita texturally, even if they're pretty similar. It's kind of comfort-food. I would definitely make this again, just maybe with some modifications.

Disaster Index: 2/10 - with spinach I'd say a 1/10.