Recipes Index - page 2

Lentil Soup -- Zuppa di Lenticchie
In discussing lentils, Mr. Vialardi, Chef to King Vittorio Emanuele, notes that they are stimulating and cause sweating, while being non-nutritious and extremely windy, and goes on to say that they're eaten either whole or puréed, and can be served as a side dish with the addition of fresh cream and butter or good concentrated broth. He also tells how to make lentil soup.

Busecca – Milanese Tripe Soup
Busecca, or Milanese Tripe Soup: A hearty winter soup that will keep the cold outside.

Pasta and/or Rice with Chestnuts
Pasta and/or Rice with Chestnuts: Dolores writes, "My Grandmother was born on one of the small islands North of Sicily (Salina). When I was a small child, she would make little pasta (like Ditalini) with dried Chestnuts. It was a thin sauce with no tomatoes. I would love to make this dish and have even found the dried chestnuts in an Italian Grocery Store. "Do you know of any recipes like this?"

Good Thursday Soup - Ministruni D'U Jovi R'O Lardaluoru
Good Thursday Soup, or Ministruni D'U Jovi R'O Lardaluoru: According to Pino Correnti, it was the custom in the Contea of Modica to prepare a minestrone whose primary ingredients were bits of lard, greens, legumes, and herbs; gather the family together to do it justice, and as they ate it set aside their differences. In other words, the soup helped them prepare themselves to greet Good Friday in the proper frame of mind.

Old-Style Versilian Sbroscia -- Sbroscia della Vecchia Versilia
This is an old recipe from Versilia, the Tuscan coastal plain north of Pisa. The base is either squash or large zucchini, and cranberry beans.

Pasta with Lentils -- Pasta e Lenticchie
Pasta with Lentils, or Pasta e Lenticchie: Everyone knows about pasta e fagioli, pasta and beans. Pasta and Lentils is an equally tasty soup.

Pork Soup with Ziti and Greens -- Brodo di Porco con Zitone
Brodo di Porco con Zitone, Pork Soup with Ziti and Greens: This pork and greens soup is a way to deal with the leftovers from making sausage. A tasty, unusual pork soup.

Farro Soup -- Zuppa di Farro
This hearty farro soup is especially common in the Garfagnana region, the mountains northwest of Lucca, in part because farro is grown there. However, it is popular in the rest of Tuscany as well.

Barley Soup, or Minestron de Orzo
Barley Soup, or Minestron de Orzo: Barley is hardier than many other grains, and will grow up to considerable elevations -- as high as 1700 meters (a bit more than a mile), an altitude at which many other grains have difficulty growing. Because of this, many of the farmers in the mountains around Vicenza grow barley, and this is one of the standard soups. Tradition dictates one use the broth from boiling a cotechino, but regular meat broth is much easier to digest.

Farro Soup with Kale --Zuppa di Farro col Cavolo Nero
The combination of Farro and Kale makes for a wonderful winter soup.

Hearty Soup with a Ham Bone -- Zuppa Con L'Osso del Prosciutto
Soup with a ham bone isn't limited to northern Europe: this is from Donatella Cinelli Colombini, who may be better known for the Brunello she makes in Montalcino, but is also a superb cook. It’s a slow-simmering soup that’s perfect for warming the whole house.

Legume Soup for Saint Joseph's -- Maccu di San 'Gnuseppi
Legume Soup for Saint Joseph's, or Maccu di San 'Gnuseppi: This is a ritual soup for San Giuseppe (Saint Joseph, March 19), and is also a custom handed down from the celebrations of the spring equinox in classical time: the housewife clears her pantry of the leftover dried legumes in the expectation of the new harvest to come.

Lentil Soup with Cotechino -- Zuppa di Lenticchie e Cotechino
The Cotechino-lentil combination is one of the most classic in Italian cooking, and this is an extraordinarily rich, tasty lentil soup.

Chickpea Soup with Saffron -- Minestra di Ceci con Zafferano
Chickpea Soup with Saffron, or Minestra di Ceci con Zafferano: This Sardinian chickpea soup is one of the more colorful soups I've come across.

Rice and Lentil Soup -- Minestra di Riso e Lenticchie
Rice and Lentil Soup, or Minestra di Riso e Lenticchie: Traditional dishes vary considerably from place to place. This particular lentil soup is Umbrian, and also contains rice, cured lard, and tomatoes.

Lentil and Borragine Soup -- Minestra di Lenticchie e Borragine
Lentil and Borragine Soup, or Minestra di Lenticchie e Borragine: Borragine is a wild grass whose stalks and leaves are covered with fine white hairs. It's used in Liguria, where it figures prominently in preboggion (a mixture of wild herbs and grasses), and Campania, where it's generally cooked with lentils. It's invariably cooked because the hairs would make it unpleasant raw. In the absence of borragine use spinach or beet greens; the results won't be quite the same but will be good.

Neapolitan Pasta with Lentils -- Pasta e Lenticchie
Neapolitan Pasta with Lentils, or Pasta e Lenticchie: A vegetarian variation on pasta e fagioli, from Naples.

Neapolitan Lentil Soup -- Zuppa di Lenticchie
Neapolitan Lentil Soup, or Zuppa di Lenticchie: This is an amazingly simple lentil soup.

Rice and Lentil Soup -- Riso e Lenticchie
Rice and Lentil Soup, or Riso e Lenticchie: This lentil soup recipe is from Lazio.

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