Minestrone

Eastside Road, November 7, 2011—

IT'S GONNA BE COLD tonight; there's a fire in the stove; let's have soup.

I minced a little bit of chorizo and browned it in olive oil in the stainless-steel pot, added an onion, a stalk of celery, and a couple of small carrots, all chopped up; browned them; then added a box of store-bought organic beef stock — later this winter I'll begin making my own. A handful of our own cannellini went in, too; they take a long time to cook, but they're so sweet and nutty. Then I chopped the stalks of eight or ten leaves of chard and threw them in, and added the chopped leaves late in the game, along with a tomato chopped up. Toast rubbed with raw garlic and drizzled with olive oil: a complete meal in a bowl.

Barbera d'Alba, La Loggia, 2010: smooth, too young, delicious.