The typical Incavolata soup from Versilia

The Incavolata soup is a popular winter typical dish from Versilia. It is an effortless dish to cook consisting of a few poor ingredients.

One of the pleasures of Versilia is undoubtedly its cuisine.
Versilia is a morphologically varied land, wherein a few kilometres you pass from the long sandy beaches to the hills, to the Apuan Alps, the gastronomic offer could only be as varied. Many are the dishes of the coast based on fish, but still, more are the preparations related to the garden and peasant life.
Borgo4case is located near Camaiore, where the cuisine of the earth reigns made of strong flavours and simple dishes: Gombitelli salami, tordelli, pepper pie.

Soups are a tradition of Tuscan cuisine, tasty dishes made with genuine and local products. In this post, I like to propose you a winter recipe with as many names as there are variations: intruglia, incavolata or farinata.

We have cooked this simple dish with beans and black cabbage from the garden, following the recipe taken from the blog Versilia in Pentola by Elisa Caniparoli.

If you are curious to try it too, here is the recipe.

Ingredients for the soup

150 gr of dried red or borlotti beans or 300 gr if fresh
150 gr of black cabbage
200 gr of yellow flour
half a glass of tomato sauce
Celery
Onion
Carrot
Garlic
Parsley
Sage
Broth
Salt, pepper, oil to taste

How to cook the Incavolata soup

1. First, put the beans to soak for 12 hours in cold water if they are dry. Once rehydrated, boil them in 2 liters of lightly salted water in which you have also added: sage, 1 clove of garlic, 1 small onion, 2 baby carrots and 2 sticks of celery. I had a lot of good homemade broth and I used that directly: I added sage and garlic, but no broth smells. Once cooked, drain them, keeping the cooking water aside. Set aside about half and pass the others. Add the puree to the cooking water of the beans.
2. Chop together 1 small stalk of celery, 1 clove of garlic, half a carrot, half a small onion, a few leaves of sage and parsley. Fry these smells in plenty of oil. Once translucent, add the tomato sauce diluted in a glass of broth. When simmering, add this sauce to the bean broth. Bring everything to a boil. As soon as the water is ready, pour the black cabbage cut into strips into the pot. Cook for 30 minutes. After this time the cabbage will be cooked, but estimate that the more it cooks the more it tastes. During this half hour, stir the soup from time to time and, if it dries too much, add a ladle of broth. Salt and pepper to taste.
3. At this point, add the boiled beans left whole to the soup. Then pour in the yellow flour, a little at a time, sifting it. It is necessary to stir often in order not to clump or attack the polenta. Count at least 20 minutes of further cooking. It must be a soft polenta. Season with salt if needed and serve in individual bowls. Serve the intruglia very hot and season with a drizzle of good oil.