After the gastronomic excesses of New Year I call this my detox soup. Made up of Tuscan kale, red cabbage and cannellini beans. Naturally the so called holy trinity soffritto - onions, carrots and celery - is imandatory. I serve this over couscous and it does the job. 

 Another archival travel photo of a shoe shine man shot in June of 1974 in Malaga, Spain. Looking at the bell bottoms pants everybody wears is enough to date image. 

 During the holidays we tried a very interesting and authentic Chinese restaurant called the Little Dumping in Bayside, Queens, NYC. This is a dish of shrimps with pea leaves but it also included the branches and stems. A savory dish that surprised me. Sometimes it's nice to let someone else do the cooking.

Happy New Year

 

 We Italians must absolutely include a dish of lenticchie con cotechino - lentils with cotechino sausage - as part of our New Year's Eve meal.  Cotechino  a special sausage is not easy to find states side so I opted for good Italian style sausage. They say that eating lentils makes one rich, I have eaten lentils for the longest time but my ship has not come in yet. Who care as long as one eats well. Happy New Year to one and all and thank you for visiting. May 2026 bring you happiness and good food.

 

I tend to get sentimental at this time of the year. Back to Pisa in August 1969. We were some of the last people allowed to climb to the top pf the leaning tower. It was soon shut down to visitors and more work was started to prevent it from toppling down. It was an experience to say the least.

  Something light before the big meal. A sandwich of broccoli rabe or cime di rapa and shaved parmigiano on rustic Italiab bread.