Leftover bread soup should be formed into little cakes and panfried in olive oil. These might be better than the soup that precedes them, and probably better than the bread before it. At the restaurant where my brother is chef, the kitchen makes ribollita throughout the winter but never serves it as soup at all. The soup is cooked, then left to get cold and absorb its flavors for a few days. It is then made into gorgeously nubby little golden pancakes.
