After three days of rain, this morning is cold and humid, and a light mist wraps the towers and the town of San Gimignano like an invisible glove. I can almost touch this magical landscape on my way to the countryside of Ulignano, home of Tenuta Torciano winery.
The wet earth stirs something warm in me on this cold day. I look around at this unique view and start daydreaming of little pleasures: a welcoming fireplace, the heat of the flames, a colorful table, and the vegetables in the garden.
I think of my husband and my son, far away in Denver, Colorado, in the snow, and with the pleasure of the memory I look at the colors the earth offers us in this rainy, humid autumn. I want to cook something tasty and warm: dark green kale, orange carrots, purple turnips, white cabbage, green spinach, orange pumpkin, and green rosemary.
In the silence of the Tuscan countryside, I start cooking. Steam fogs the kitchen windows, the smells soften the air of the house, and the vegetables just picked from the garden simmer in a large earthen pot.
I set the table, add more wood to the fire, and open a bottle of Rosso di Montalcino, satisfied with the dish I'm preparing. The moment is magical: the soup, just poured into colorful dishes, hot, steaming, fragrant, a product born of this wonderful Tuscan land.
Recipe
Tuscan soup
It's nice to cook something warm and tasty on cold winter days. This Tuscan soup recipe is easy, and it warms the table and makes the family happy, an Italian dish made with simple, natural ingredients of the earth.
Ingredients
2 bunches of kale, 300 g pumpkin, 400 g of dried beans, 2 sage leaves, 1 red Tuscan onion, 3 cloves of garlic, 100 g of lard, 50 g of bacon, 1.5 dl of extra virgin olive oil from Tuscany, 6 slices of unsalted Tuscan bread, salt to taste.
Beans and pumpkin
Soak the beans in warm water for 12 hours, then cook them for 15 minutes in salted water in a crock pot with sage, onion, and garlic. Clean the pumpkin, remove the seeds and filaments, and cut it into cubes.
The soup
Wash the cabbage and cut it into small pieces. Finely chop the bacon and fry it in a crock pot with two tablespoons of olive oil, then add the cabbage and the beans with their cooking water, plus the diced pumpkin, and cook for about 30 minutes.
To serve
Toast the slices of bread in the oven, place them in individual bowls, pour in the soup, and finish with the remaining olive oil.
The Tuscan soup is ready.
