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Soup season · Florence, Italy
The best bowl in Florence: Ribollita
Tuscan bread soup: cannellini beans, cavolo nero and vegetables cooked with stale bread until thick enough to eat with a fork, finished with new olive oil.
The name means 'reboiled': Florentines made it from yesterday's soup and yesterday's bread. In November, with the new olive oil poured on top, nothing in the city is better.
Trattoria Cammillo
Borgo San Jacopo 57r, 50125 Florence
Get: The ribollita with a pour of olive oil
Una ribollita, per favore, con un filo d'olio.A ribollita, please, with a thread of olive oil.
A family trattoria across the Ponte Vecchio since 1945, and the ribollita food writers single out in a menu of Tuscan classics.
Autumn and winter, when the cavolo nero has had a frost. Closed Wednesdays.
Make it at home
Ribollita, Tuscan bread and bean soup
Use real stale bread, a dense country loaf with no salt if you can find it, and cavolo nero. It's at its best reheated the next day, which is the point of the name.
You need
- 1 1/2 cups (300 g) dried cannellini beans, soaked overnight (or 3 cans, 15 oz / 425 g each, rinsed)
- 1/2 cup (120 ml) extra-virgin olive oil, plus your best oil to finish
- 1 red onion, chopped
- 2 carrots, chopped
- 2 celery stalks, chopped
- 3 garlic cloves, sliced
- 1 leek, sliced
- 2 tbsp tomato paste or 2 ripe tomatoes, chopped
- 1 large bunch cavolo nero (lacinato kale), stems removed, leaves shredded
- 1/4 head Savoy cabbage, shredded
- 2 potatoes, peeled and diced
- 1 sprig thyme and 1 sprig rosemary
- 8 oz (225 g) stale Tuscan bread, sliced thin
- Salt and black pepper
How to make it
- If using dried beans, simmer them in fresh water with a sage leaf for 1 to 1 1/2 hours until creamy-tender. Keep 3 cups (720 ml) of the cooking liquid. Puree half the beans with some of the liquid.
- Warm the olive oil in a large heavy pot over medium heat. Add the onion, carrots, celery and leek with a big pinch of salt and cook gently 15 minutes, stirring, until soft and sweet but not brown. Add the garlic for 2 minutes.
- Stir in the tomato paste for 2 minutes, then add the cavolo nero, cabbage and potatoes. Stir until the greens wilt, 5 minutes.
- Add the pureed beans, the bean liquid and enough water to cover by an inch, plus the herbs. Simmer, partly covered, 1 hour, until the greens are silky. Add the whole beans for the last 15 minutes. Season well.
- In a clean pot or deep baking dish, layer slices of bread with ladles of soup until it's all used. Leave 30 minutes so the bread drinks the soup.
- To serve the Florentine way, reheat it the next day: stir it over medium heat until it's thick and bubbling, about 15 minutes, adding a splash of water if it catches.
- Serve in shallow bowls with a thread of raw red onion if you like, black pepper and a generous pour of your best olive oil.
Pans and tools
- 6-quart heavy pot
- blender or immersion blender
Chef's tips
- It should be thick enough to hold its shape on a spoon, not brothy.
- No stale bread? Toast fresh slices in a 300F (150C) oven for 20 minutes until dry.
- Keeps 4 days and only gets better.
Four more bowls in Florence
Tomato bread soup
Stale Tuscan bread melted into ripe tomatoes, garlic, basil and a great deal of olive oil.
Trattoria Sergio Gozzi · Piazza di San Lorenzo 8r, 50123 Firenze
Get: Pappa al pomodoro, then whatever roast is on the board
Una pappa al pomodoro, per favore.A tomato bread soup, please.
Serving Florentine home cooking since 1915 by the San Lorenzo market; lunch only, so plan for it.
Lunch only, closed Sundays.
Make it at home: Pappa al pomodoro
The bread has to be properly stale and unsalted Tuscan if you can find it; the soup is best warm, not hot.
You need
- 1/2 cup (120 ml) extra-virgin olive oil, plus more to finish
- 4 cloves garlic, sliced
- A pinch of chile flakes
- 2 lb (900 g) ripe tomatoes, peeled and chopped, or 2 cans (14 oz / 400 g each) whole tomatoes, crushed
- 3 cups (720 ml) vegetable broth or water
- 10 oz (280 g) stale country bread, crusts off, torn
- A big handful of basil leaves
- 1 tsp kosher salt, black pepper
How to make it
- Warm the oil in a pot over low heat and cook the garlic and chile 2 minutes, until fragrant but not brown.
- Add the tomatoes and salt and simmer 15 minutes.
- Add the broth and bring to a simmer. Stir in the bread and half the basil, push the bread under, and cook 10 minutes, stirring now and then, until it melts.
- Take off the heat, cover and rest 30 minutes. Beat it with a whisk until thick and smooth-ish.
- Serve warm or at room temperature with the rest of the basil and a generous pour of olive oil.
Chef's tips
- Too thick? Add hot broth. Too thin? More bread.
Acquacotta
'Cooked water': onion, celery and greens simmered into a broth, poured over toast and finished with a poached egg.
Acquacotta · Via dei Pilastri 51r, 50121 Firenze
Get: The acquacotta the trattoria is named for, then a pasta
Un'acquacotta, per favore.One acquacotta, please.
A small home-style trattoria near Sant'Ambrogio named for the soup, praised for its pastas and soups.
Make it at home: Acquacotta with poached egg
A peasant soup from the Maremma: almost nothing in it, and still one of Tuscany's best.
You need
- 1/3 cup (80 ml) extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 red onions, thinly sliced
- 3 celery stalks with leaves, sliced
- 1 carrot, diced
- 1 can (14 oz / 400 g) whole tomatoes, crushed
- 1 bunch chard or cavolo nero, sliced
- 1 1/2 quarts (1.4 l) water or light broth
- 4 eggs
- 4 thick slices country bread, toasted and rubbed with garlic
- 1/2 cup (50 g) grated pecorino
- Salt, black pepper
How to make it
- Warm the oil and cook the onions, celery and carrot slowly, 20 minutes, until very soft and sweet.
- Add the tomatoes and greens and cook 5 minutes, then the water and 1 tsp salt. Simmer 20 minutes.
- Lower the heat so the soup barely bubbles and crack the eggs into it, spaced apart. Cover and poach 4 minutes.
- Put a slice of toast in each bowl, sprinkle with pecorino, then lift an egg onto each and ladle the soup around it.
- Finish with pepper and olive oil.
Chef's tips
- In autumn, add a handful of sliced porcini with the onions.
Farro soup
Spelt grains cooked in a soup of beans and vegetables, nutty and thick, the soup of the Garfagnana hills.
Trattoria Enzo e Piero · Via Faenza 105r, 50123 Firenze
Get: Zuppa di farro, then the bistecca if you're two
Una zuppa di farro, per favore.A farro soup, please.
A family trattoria near the station that has kept the old Florentine menu, farro soup included.
Make it at home: Tuscan farro and bean soup
Use semi-pearled farro so it cooks in 30 minutes but keeps a chew.
You need
- 1/3 cup (80 ml) extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 onion, 1 carrot, 1 celery stalk, chopped
- 2 oz (60 g) pancetta, chopped (optional)
- 2 cloves garlic, 1 sprig rosemary
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 2 cans (14 oz / 400 g each) borlotti or cannellini beans, drained
- 2 quarts (1.9 l) vegetable broth
- 1 cup (200 g) semi-pearled farro, rinsed
- Salt, black pepper
How to make it
- Cook the onion, carrot, celery and pancetta in the oil 12 minutes, until soft. Add the garlic, rosemary and tomato paste for 2 minutes.
- Add the beans and broth and simmer 20 minutes. Remove the rosemary and blend half the soup until smooth, then return it.
- Add the farro and simmer 30 to 35 minutes, stirring often, until tender.
- Season, rest 10 minutes and serve with olive oil.
Chef's tips
- Thick enough for a spoon to stand up? That's how they like it.
Lampredotto in its broth
The fourth stomach of the cow, simmered for hours in a broth of tomato, onion and celery, served wet in a roll or in a bowl.
Da Nerbone · Piazza del Mercato Centrale, 50123 Firenze
Get: Lampredotto, bagnato (the roll dipped in the broth), with salsa verde and salsa piccante; or ask for it in a bowl with its broth
Un lampredotto bagnato, con tutte e due le salse.A lampredotto, dipped, with both sauces.
Selling lampredotto at the central market since 1872, with the long queue to prove it.
Market hours; lunch only, closed Sundays.
Make it at home: Florentine lampredotto in broth
Ask your butcher for cleaned abomasum (or honeycomb tripe if they don't have it). The broth is half the point: drink it.
You need
- 2 lb (900 g) cleaned lampredotto or honeycomb tripe
- 1 onion, halved
- 1 carrot, 2 celery stalks
- 1 ripe tomato, halved
- A handful of parsley stems
- 2 tsp kosher salt
- 1/2 tsp black peppercorns
- Salsa verde: 1 bunch parsley, 1 tbsp capers, 2 anchovies, 1 garlic clove, 1 hard-boiled egg yolk, 1 tbsp vinegar, 1/2 cup (120 ml) olive oil, blended
- Crusty rolls, chile oil
How to make it
- Rinse the lampredotto well. Put it in a pot with the onion, carrot, celery, tomato, parsley stems, salt and peppercorns and cover with water by 2 inches (5 cm).
- Bring to a boil, skim, and simmer very gently 2 1/2 to 3 hours, until it's soft enough to cut with a spoon.
- Lift it out and slice into thin strips; keep the broth hot.
- Serve the strips in bowls with ladles of broth, a spoon of salsa verde and chile oil, or pile into split rolls whose top halves you dip in the broth.
Chef's tips
- The broth makes a fine base for a risotto the next day.
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No. 1 checked October 28, 2026; the other four picked the same day from local guides and menus. Places change; if one has, tell us at hello@chefamazing.com.
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