For my version of ribollita, instead of cooking the bread with the soup, I like to add a slice of toasted bread smeared with a bit of pesto and float it on top of the soup just before serving. A purist would tell you that this is definitely not ribollita, which calls for the bread to be cooked along with the vegetables. This recipe was originally published on my website somethingnewfordinner.com.
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<br />I do some other non-traditional things. I like to add tomatoes, that were certainly not available in Italy in the Middle ages, and four kinds of greens: Lacinato kale, Swiss chard, rapini and spinach. If I can find them I use cannellini beans, but great northern beans will do as well. I also use a chunk of pancetta as a tribute to the roast-soaked bread originally used to make ribollita, and just because everything is better with pancetta.

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