Now that it is officially autumn I’m feeling in the mood for soups again. Last night I made one that was definitely a keeper. I adapted it from one I saved but don’t recall from where. Probably the NY Times or SAVEUR. I swapped out the spinach for cabbage, because I had it and I love cabbage. Otherwise I kept it mostly the same. Recipe is after the photo.
Ingredients 1 T olive oil 1/2 cup diced onion 2 cloves garlic minced 1 t of oregano 1/2 t red pepper flakes 2 T tomato paste 2 15 oz. cans chickpeas drained 3-4 cups vegetable broth 1/3 cup sun-dried tomatoes in oil chopped juice of 1/2 lemon 1 cup canned full fat coconut milk 2-3 cups rough chopped cabbage (spinach or other green) Salt and pepper
Fresh basil leaves for garnish
In a large pot, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the chopped onion and sauté until translucent, about 3-4 minutes. Add minced garlic, oregano and red pepper flakes. Cook another 1-2 minutes.
Add chickpeas and tomato paste. Pour in broth. Stir. Bring mixture to a boil and reduce to a simmer, cover the pot. Simmer 15 minutes.
Using an immersion blender or a regular blender, blend about half of the soup. This helps thicken it while leaving some chickpeas whole for texture.
Stir in sun-dried tomatoes, lemon juice, coconut milk and cabbage or greens of choice. If using cabbage or a hearty greens simmer until greens is tender. About 20-30 minutes. If using spinach simmer 5-10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
Ladle into bowls, garnish with basil and serve with toasted bread.
The weather is glorious so we decided to visit a winery. We took the Giallo Angelo and even put the top down for the non super strada part of the trip. We visited Le Cimate in Montefalco.
The owner, Paolo, motioned us to a door where he was taking a tour into the tasting room. There were two Italians and two Americans from New Hampshire. They each bought some wine
They just finished harvesting the white wine grapes two days ago. The smell of fermentation was very strong. The winery has 22 hectares or about 45 acres but their production is just 110,000 bottles. Here are the types of grapes. Some are quite unusual for the area.
We proceeded to taste three white wines and three reds. They use some unusual grapes for this region. Here are pictures of the bottles.
It was a lot of fun and nice to get out and about in the area. The winery sits in a pretty valley. They even gifted us a jar of their nocciola crema. They also grow hazelnuts. Nocciola.
Enjoy the harvest season. Now, it is all about the grapes. Next it will be all about the olives. The green gold of Umbria. My favorite time of the year! 🍁 🍇 🫒 Ciao!
We had our “gang” over for Sunday lunch because our last (🤞) heat wave finally has broken. This was the hottest summer ever recorded in Italy. I knew the terrace would finally be nice enough to eat outside. All of our gang are going away soon for vacations in far flung places so I rushed to do this before we all were coming and going. Doug wins the prize for most distance. He is going to South Africa. Roselyne and Steve are off to Paris for a “significant” birthday celebration, buon compleanno Roselyne. Jen goes on a road trip to Calabria the heel of “the boot”. And Luther and I are going to Hamburg Germany and the north coast.
The lunch was cursed right from the getgo. I knew it would be a busy morning of cooking. I had done what I could to prep but this one called for a lot of more last minute work. I had planned an all Spanish meal. I’m never afraid to do a recipe I haven’t made before. The main course was a Paella Valencia. The snack was toasted bread rubbed with garlic and a raw, juicy tomato. This is a common tapa. And the primi was the Spanish omelette I had made before with good success.
The first disaster was toasting the bread in the broiler. I neglected to watch it and that is not smart. I smelled it burning. It was black. So I started again. This time with success. Then I started working on the omelette. All went well until I wanted to “confidently” flip the pan. That was fine but it had stuck and only half came off. I had to manually remove the rest. Then returned to the pan. I flipped it again to remove hoping it would look better on that side. It didn’t look terrible but the pretty brown crust remained stuck to the pan ☹️ So, it was cooked but it sure wasn’t pretty. I was beginning to feel like everything was going wrong.
The paella would have been delicious but there were technical issues that I couldn’t overcome. You may remember my spiffy induction cooktop? Well, it just wasn’t cutting the mustard. It would not heat hot enough for the enormous paella pan. I have an extra induction hot plate and I decided to try that. This was all before my guests arrived. I was precooking the vegetables. They cooked ok but I noted the heated part was really just in the center of the pan. While my guests were chatting I made the paella. But the bubbling fish broth was just in the very center of the pan. You’re not supposed to stir it, but I realized the outer edges wouldn’t cook unless I did. So long story short it tasted pretty good but some of the rice was not cooked enough. Third strike! I’m out! First pic is while it is cooking, second is it on the table.
Thank the heavens Doug brought the dessert! 🙄 And it was delicious. A peach tart extravaganza.
Luther and I also got a wonderful, amazing, stunning gift from Jen. It was for our anniversary which was in June, BUT she started this project when we had our 50th anniversary which was seven years ago. Yes, she has been working on this for all those years. She also took it on all her adventures and travels working on it in many places. She gave us statistics. It is double stranded, lace weight cashmere. The color is nightshade. A deep blue-gray. Made with no mistakes it takes 372,380 stitches. She explained she made many mistakes and had to undo and go back and fix so many more than that number. I am so touched. I took some photos but they don’t do it justice. So I borrowed some of Jen’s pictures.
I am so touched by this gift. It is so beautiful, soft beyond belief, and took so, so, so much work. Grazie di cuore,! amica mia, 💕 ~~~~~~ Now the weather has broken I hope to get out and about a little more. I’m going to push for a trip to a winery. That would be fun. I hope wherever you are, you’re enjoying life! Here is to autumn! My favorite season. May it be long and lovely 🍂
