This ribollita comes from Collebrunacchi, a family-run farm restaurant near San Miniato in Tuscany. It is the bowl that made us want to know how it was made.

If you’re not familiar with Ribollita, it’s a Tuscan soup. As it was described to us the first time we tried it at Cibreo in Florence, “a soup so thick, your spoon will stand up in it.” Francesco’s Ribollita is not so dramatically thick, and was the best we have ever had.

The morning after we tried it, we were drinking espresso with Francesco and asked him what made his so good. It was more vegetable-forward, less stuffed with bread. He smiled and said he was going to make a batch for the next day anyway and offered to show us how it’s really done.