Winter and Cooking
fionda
California, which puts me in the mood for soups, breads, baked
desserts, leafy vegetables.... I even made polenta a couple of weeks
ago, and it was a great hit with my friends.
Today I wanted cabbage and bean soup, so I cooked some beans. I will
use canned beans in a pinch, but I prefer to cook the dry; they seem
to have better flavor. Whatever I didn't use went in the freezer to be
pulled out the next time I make polenta or pasta e fagioli or even
when I want a bean salad.
Back home we always had a terracotta pot (pignata) with beans boiling
in my mother's or grandmother's kitchen fireplaces for what seemed
like all day. We'd drain and drop them in tomato sauce and cooked
them again for a while, then we served them before the main course in
a large bowl lined with small pieces of hard, homemade, rustic bread
and pieces of raw, red onions.
In the spring we planted and cultivated the beans until the summer,
when the pods became dry and the beans could be easily extracted. Then
we stored them along with other grains, and cooked them the rest of
the year.
Everyone is invited to share cooking tidbits, advice.... I love to
read other people's posts.
Claudia
flavorsandmemories.com