If I were to follow my personal preferences in the kitchen, I would create a different soup for every day of the week. I love the comfort of folding my hands around a meal in a bowl and adore the endless possibilities a cast iron pot stewing on the stove provides. The process of cutting, chopping, stirring and simmering wards off the winter chills. But most of all — making soup satisfies my obsession for vegetables.
The following version of ribollita is inspired by two beautiful, leafy greens: rainbow chard and cavolo nero. This recipe has its roots somewhere between Verona and Florence and is inspired not only by a Tuscan icon, but by the rustic country cooking of the regions of northern Italy. Follow it like a road map and make changes according to the ingredients in your pantry.
On the eve of a new year I count my blessings. I have no extravagant plans today; just simple ones. I am up early and ready to go out for the last of this year’s ingredients. In keeping with Italian tradition, I will put a pot of rosemary lentils on the stove late this evening to celebrate the arrival of January. This morning I am on the lookout for uncomplicated ingredients like onions, carrots and flat leaf parsley. I look forward to bringing home ground cumin and mossy green sea salt in paper-wrappings from my favorite spice shop. Call me strange — but I love grocery shopping road trips. 
The Christmas rush is on. Strangely enough my response to the frenetic activity around me during this time of year is to hibernate, to open the pages of photo albums, to unpack old tree ornaments and to reflect upon the symbolism surrounding the end of one and the beginning of a new year. With four seasons of journals and kitchen notebooks opened on the table, I connect the dots between the past and the future as the dark days of December pass.
Call me a romantic, but the smooth, shiny exteriors of chestnuts remind me of a teddy bear’s nose. Just looking at them brings back a flood of memories guided by the senses. Visions of roasting chestnuts over an open fire, popping open in netted baskets only to reveal a nut filled with earthiness and faint wisps of smoke pass for my minds’ eye. Christmas market memories in Florence, Rome and the mountain town of Bassano del Grappa, come vividly to life and I have half a mind to jump on the night train to Milan.
Summer is the best of all seasons — bringing loads of melons, even more berries, crates full of peaches, nectarines and baskets and baskets of blueberries. The abundance of reds, purples and pinks inspire to simple salads and heavenly desserts. Fruit macedonia for breakfast or lunch makes way for brightly colored frozen fruits after supper. I like to fill frosty caffè’ latte bowls with homemade fruit sorbet and top them with chopped fruits for an effortless dessert.
Spring arrives in April or May and slowly but surely baskets of strawberries begin to overtake the fruit vendors shelves in my neighborhood. The brighter their color, the more often I find myself cheerfully adding strawberries to my fruit macedonia and picnic-style shortcakes. The days stretch out into long evenings full of light. All of a sudden, or so it seems, deep ruby-red strawberries fill my favorite vintage porcelain plates daily in the kitchen. Just about mid-June, strawberries become so luscious and full of perfume that nothing short of a squeeze of lemon, a drizzle of honey and some flowering lavender are needed for the perfect midsummer dessert. This is the moment when I hope that summer will last forever.
In the Spring I simply cannot decide which green vegetable to start cooking with first — peas, broad beans or asparagus. The arrival of the first clay covered new potatoes at the farmers market is a thrill and a promise that winter’s root vegetables are no longer my sole source of kitchen inspiration. With fists full of bright green spears of asparagus, I look back with absolutely no regrets on the end of limited hours of daylight for three glorious new seasons. With the door temporarily closed to the cold, I look forward to a gorgeous spring, a brightly colored summer and an unforgettable harvest season in the fall. The following recipe is distinctively Italian and made with three of the best earthy ingredients — grilled asparagus and potatoes with lemon-parsley gremolata. This is deliciously real fast food.
Beautiful Food Stories 