Pressure Cooker Ribollita With Smoked Mozzarella Toasts

Published Jan. 24, 2020

Pressure Cooker Ribollita With Smoked Mozzarella Toasts
Christopher Testani for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews.
Total Time
2 hours
Rating
4(624)
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.

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Ingredients

Yield:6 to 8 servings (about 8 cups)

    For the Soup

    • ¼cup olive oil, plus more for drizzling
    • 1large yellow or red onion, finely chopped
    • Kosher salt and black pepper
    • 1large leek, trimmed, white and light green parts sliced
    • 3celery stalks, finely chopped
    • 1small fennel bulb, trimmed, cored and finely chopped, fronds reserved
    • 14garlic cloves, smashed and roughly chopped
    • 2dried bay leaves
    • 1teaspoon red-pepper flakes, plus more for serving
    • 1cup dry white wine
    • 5cups chicken or vegetable stock
    • cups dried white beans, such as cannellini or great Northern (no need to soak)
    • 1(15-ounce) can crushed tomatoes
    • 3fresh thyme sprigs or 1 teaspoon dried thyme
    • 1fresh rosemary sprig or ½ teaspoon dried rosemary
    • 2tablespoons fresh lemon juice (from about ½ lemon)
    • 1bunch kale, chard or collards (about 12 ounces), stemmed and finely chopped, or 1 (10-ounce) bag frozen chopped spinach or kale
    • 2teaspoons balsamic vinegar, preferably aged

    For the Toasts

    • 8slices crusty bread, for serving
    • 1garlic clove, cut in half
    • Olive oil
    • 8ounces smoked or regular mozzarella, cut into 8 (¼-inch-thick) slices
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (8 servings)

552 calories; 24 grams fat; 7 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 12 grams monounsaturated fat; 3 grams polyunsaturated fat; 58 grams carbohydrates; 12 grams dietary fiber; 10 grams sugars; 25 grams protein; 1062 milligrams sodium

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.

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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.

Ratings

4 out of 5
624 user ratings
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Comments

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!

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!

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.

Really enjoyed this... surprisingly complex flavors for a vegetarian dish...

Recipe worked great for me as-is. Some have suggested doing an extra 15m pressure cook after stirring so the beans at the top soften more - I didn’t find this necessary, as you are still cooking and simmering the stew when you add the greens. That did the trick with the beans. Plus, this makes great leftovers, almost thickens to an Italian-style chili - and it’s nice to not have things too overcooked for leftovers.

This is one of the best recipes on NY Times Cooking app. I make it as written and it never disappoints. My family loves it.

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