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New Tuscany Tour May 2025... Book Now!

As you may already know, we sold out our  Tuscany tour from May 12 to 18, 2024. Our October 13-19, 2024 is starting to fill up too, so we just added a new Tuscany tour  from May 11 to 17, 2025, and you're officially the first people to hear about it!

Watch our Tuscany video  to see what amazing food, beautiful landscapes, and once-in-a-lifetime experiences we have in store for you (click on the photo above to access the video in a new page). We'll be sending out an email to our general subscriber list next month, but wanted to give you first dibs on this new tour, especially if you love upgraded accommodations (those book fast, and we have a limited number of suites available at the villa!).

Read all about our Tuscany tour and check out our updated calendar:
Liguria – The Italian Riviera  May 5-11, 2024 and September 1-7, 2024
Tuscany & Beyond October 13-19, 2024 and May 11-17, 2025
Puglia & Beyond September 22-28, 2024
Sicily & Calabria October 2-10, 2024

We've kept our US phone number so call us at 347 566 2212 or email micol@rusticocooking.com to book. We look forward to enjoying Italy with you!
Micol and Dino

Tuscany Tour Client Testimonial: Nina from NJ

"I'm writing to formally tell you how much I enjoyed our trip to Tuscany & Beyond ... You made everyone feel comfortable and welcome. Your ability to teach us as much as you did in two short hours of cooking a day was amazing. It was like a choreographed dance, and we all got to participate. And the food was so delicious! The daily tours were fascinating, beautiful, and tasty too. Not to mention the incredible multi-course dinners we had each night at a different and exceptional restaurant. And the value was more than I anticipated. You gave us a huge bang for our bucks! Your warmth, patience, kindness, and caring made the trip extra special and unique. It was a trip I will hold dear forever... You are amazing hosts and teachers with the warmest hearts. Every detail was perfect. I can’t wait to prepare your recipes to share with my family and friends. I am still in awe of how you both orchestrated the tour. I know how much work goes into organizing and executing it. You were responsible for the well-being of everyone, and you did it with love and care and expertise. Having you as our guides was the absolute greatest and perfect way to experience Tuscany & Beyond." 

Tuscan Ribollita Soup

Ribollita is one of Tuscany's most beloved soups. Made in humble country kitchens, it combines the region's saltless bread, prized beans, and hearty cavolo nero (literally translated, black cabbage--in fact it is Lacinato kale). It is a dish meant to be reheated; its very name means "boiled twice." Every cook makes his or her own version, but all versions include onions, carrots, celery, beans, cavolo nero, and bread... not to mention plenty of olive oil. I suggest you make a lot (the recipe below yields enough for 8 servings, but it can easily be doubled or even tripled; just watch the salt, as you can't double or triple it without risking a salty soup).

This recipe calls for canned beans; in Tuscany, purists would frown on using canned beans and would reach only for dried beans. To make ribollita with dried beans, the procedure will be different from the one described here: first soak the beans overnight in plenty of cool water, then drain, cook in plenty of fresh water, and puree a portion before adding to the soup; 1 and 1/4 cups of dried beans is roughly equivalent to the 2 cans of beans suggested here.

Serves 8

1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
4 medium yellow onions, minced
6 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cup minced Italian parsley
2 large carrots, minced
2 celery stalks, minced
1 and 1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup strained Italian canned tomatoes
2 cans (15 ounces each) cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
2 quarts (8 cups) water
2 bunches (1 pound) lacinato kale, woody stems removed, leaves chopped
1/2 pound dense country bread, crumbled

1. Place 1/4 cup of the olive oil in a deep, heavy-bottomed saucepan or pot (cast iron or enameled cast iron work well).
2. Add the onions, garlic, parsley, carrots, and celery to the pot and stir. Season with the salt and pepper.
3. Cook over medium heat for 20 minutes, stirring often to encourage even browning and to prevent scorching or sticking. If needed, add a little water to the vegetables in the pot. Don't rush this step: it is the key to a really good soup. When the vegetables are golden and soft, the base (or soffritto) is ready.
4. Add the tomatoes to the pot and stir well to incorporate. Cook 5 minutes, or until the tomatoes lose their raw scent.
5. Add all but 1 cup of the drained and rinsed cannellini beans to the pot and stir again.
6. Meanwhile, in a blender, process the reserved 1 cup of cannellini beans with 1 cup of the water until smooth; stir this bean puree into the pot. The bean puree will thicken and flavor the soup, and is essential to a true ribollita. (Note, however, that in Tuscany, ribollita is usually made with dried beans rather than canned... and purists would frown on using canned beans. See the introductory note above to substitute dried beans.)
7. Add the remaining 7 cups of water to the pot and stir well. Stir in the kale and bring the soup to a boil.
8. At this point it will seem like there is way too much kale in the pot, but as the soup simmers for hours, the kale will cook down to a soft, silky mass and will shrink a lot.
9. Stir the bread into the pot; I like using bread with the crusts on, but in Tuscany, the crusts are usually omitted.
10. Cover with a lid and reduce the heat to low. Simmer the soup for 2 to 3 hours, stirring once in a while and adding a bit of water if needed to maintain a soupy (but thick, almost porridge-like) consistency. Watch that the soup doesn't stick to the bottom of the pot.
    
11. If the texture of the soup is too thin, remove the lid and cook the soup, uncovered, until nicely thickened. The final consistency of the soup has a lot to do with the type of bread you use; the denser the bread, the thicker the soup, since dense bread absorbs more liquid than light, airy bread. Tuscan bread is very dense and chewy, ideal for ribollita and other bread-based soups.
12. Adjust the salt and pepper, and serve the soup hot, drizzled with the remaining 1/4 cup of olive oil. A slice of garlic-rubbed grilled bread is definitely welcome alongside!