To cook this tasty Florentine soup we soak the beans in a bowl with cold (but not iced) water for 2-3 hours or according to the instructions, then drain them.
Then move them to a saucepan, cover them with water at room temperature, add the bay leaf, a pinch of salt and cook, in a covered pan and over low heat, for about an hour.
When cooked, keep them warm in their broth.
We clean and wash the vegetables and begin to finely chop the onion, leek, celery and carrot.
Brown the garlic in 2 tablespoons of oil in a saucepan; then add the aromatic mixture and let it dry; then remove the garlic, add salt, sprinkle with a few tablespoons of broth and let everything simmer for about ten minutes. We also combine aromatic herbs.
Add the cabbage cut into strips, peeled and coarsely chopped tomatoes, chopped ham, part of the bean cooking broth, the necessary hot vegetable broth to the vegetable stock and cook everything for about an hour.
We pass ¾ of the beans in a vegetable mill and add them to the soup together with the whole ones. If needed, add a little more broth and, after a few minutes, remove them from the heat.
We serve the Florentine soup with toasted slices of bread, seasoned with a drizzle of oil and sprinkled with pepper.