Food: Hello Fresh - Recipe #1: Tuscan Ribollita

*If those of you that have not read or remember reading my introductory post of Hello Fresh, here is the link to that post!**

Tuscan Ribollita is an Italian dish of Kale, Italian Sausages, Cannelloni Beans, Tomatoes, and Hello Fresh's added ingredient, Cheesy Croutons.

Left: Hello Fresh, Right: Mine

So this is my first recipe I have tried from this food delivery company. This recipe is categorized as a Level 1 in  cooking skills and a cook time of 35 mins, so I was expecting this to be a breeze. However, prep work (even though all the ingredients and portion sizes had already been measured out for you), it still took me a good half hour to chop and dice all the ingredients. So prep and cook time took me about a good hour and half to prepare everything. 

I also changed up the recipe a bit to fit my taste. 

Here is the "Hello Fresh's" Original Recipe. 

(The dish is actually quite tasty, so I recommend you giving this a try.)

Ingredients (2 People):

Ciabatta (A small loaf)

Sweet Italian Sausage (9 oz)

Carrot (1)

Red Onion (1)

Garlic (2 Cloves)

Tuscan Kale (4 oz)

Diced Tomatoes (1 Can)

Cannellini Beans (1 Can)

Parmesan Cheese, Shredded (1/4 cup)

Chili Flakes (1 tsp)

Chicken Stick Concentrate (1 cube)

Olive Oil (1 tbsp)

Instructions:

1. Prep the ingredients: Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Halve, peel, and finely chop the onion. Peel and finely chop the carrot. Mince or grate the garlic. Remove and discard the ribs and stems from the kale, then coarsely chop the leaves. Drain and rinse the Cannellini Beans. Remove the sausage from the casings.

2. Start the Ribollita: Heat a drizzle of oil in a large pot over medium-low heat. Add the onion, carrot, garlic, and 1/4 teaspoon of chili flakes (or less, to taste) to the pot. Season with salt and pepper. Cook, tossing occasionally, for 5-6 minutes, until the veggies have softened. Add the sausage and cook, breaking up the meat into pieces, until browned, for 3-4 minutes.

3. Add the diced tomatoes, cannellini beans, stock concentrate, and 3 cups of water to the pot. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer for 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

4. Prepare the Parmesan croutons: Halve the ciabatta horizontally. Drizzle each side with olive oil and sprinkle with the parmesan cheese. Place the ciabatta on a baking sheet and transfer to the oven for about 5 minutes, or until bread is toasted and cheese has melted.

5. Finish the Ribollita: Add the kale to the pot and cook, covered, until the kale has wilted, for about 3 minutes. Taste and season with salt and pepper, if necessary.

6. Plate: Cut the Parmesan croutons into cubes. Ladle the ribollita into bowls and top with the croutons so they soak up all the yummy broth! Enjoy!

Here is what I did differently.

I only used half the onion. I added rice which made the dish a lot more lighter than initially. I also made toasted, cheesy breadsticks, instead of croutons. I also did not add three cups of water all at once (refer to step 3), I just added a few ounces here and there as I saw fit.

The next time I cook this, I plan on making garlic breadsticks. And instead of adding water, I'm going to use chicken broth and less of the stock concentrate to lessen the amount of sodium in the dish because it was quite salty, tasty but salty.

I love the heat from the chili flakes, the tartiness of the tomatoes, and the textures of the beans and kale. There is a lot of flavor in this dish and it is also extremely filling. It is also very easy to change this recipe into a vegetarian dish without taking away the flavor. Just substitute chicken concentrate with vegetable concentrate, and don't use the sausage and you are good to go. 

All-in-all, I really enjoyed this dish. It is a great addition to my line-up of dishes I already make on a daily basis and I can not wait to cook it again!

I hope you enjoy these occasional food/recipes posts on my blog, just to change things up a bit!

Happy Wandering! Alice


**This is not a sponsored post...but to be honest, I would gladly accept free meals to post about these recipes! No lie! So that being said, every customer that has signed up gets a referral code, so if you are interested in using mine, (CDJDEJ), feel free to. You will get a $40 off your first box, and I will get $20 off of my next box.**