Chill until firm and set, at least 6 hours and preferably overnight (12 hours)..
ribollita, which I ate on my first visit to Italy, was so perfect and nourishing that it made me forget for an hour that I was wearing my girlfriend's puffy sweater because the airline had lost my luggage.).Leonti learned how to make ribollita from a restaurateur from Lunigiana, a three-hour drive northwest of Siena, paying close attention to the porridge's humble elements: grassy-green, peppery olive oil; earthy, rustic bread; small, thin-skinned white beans; and most importantly, soffrito, the finely chopped, slow-cooked mixture of carrots, onions, and celery that gives ribollita its extraordinary flavor.
At Leonti, soffritto was the foundation of ragù, and of the hot broth served to guests upon arrival — it's such a crucial ingredient that his cooks made about 75 quarts of it a week.. Leonti used to laboriously chop his soffritto with a knife by using a rocking motion."Then I watched.Eat Drink Man Woman.
, and the best part is the beginning, with the Chinese chef chopping with big cleavers," he recalls."I thought, 'That's the move!'"
So, Leonti bought some large cleavers in Chinatown and a wood butcher block, and set up a soffritto station in the kitchen, where his cooks rhythmically chopped and broke down the whole vegetables into rubble using the same kind of chopping technique I saw a barbecue cook use at Skylight Inn BBQ in Ayden, North Carolina, to break down the meat of whole smoked hogs into a fine mince.
The size of the mince matters — the smaller the better — Leonti says, because you're multiplying the surface area of the vegetables by a thousandfold.Seal the bag and transfer to a baking dish.
Refrigerate up to 12 hours.Bring chicken to room temperature before grilling, about 1 hour.. Preheat a gas grill to medium-high (400°F to 450°F) on 1 side, or push hot coals to one side of a charcoal grill.
Place the rosemary sprigs in a large cast-iron skillet, then place the chicken, skin-side up, over the herbs.Place skillet on grates over direct heat, close grill, and cook for 10 minutes.