Scarola e Faciole: White Bean and Escarole Soup with Pancetta
If you, like me, are suffering through these grey upon grey single-digit days, reading Dostoyevsky while sipping a good Russian vodka could provide some comfort. Sipping said vodka while watching Dr. Zhivago might be another plan. These activities, of course, accompanied by a good cup of soup– always a good leavening agent.
Take Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s, “The Brothers Karamazov”. In the midst of a heady conversation between Ivan and Alyosha, soup is brought into the story:
“Though I may not believe in the order of the universe, yet I love the sticky little leaves as they open in spring. I love the blue sky, I love some people, whom one loves you know sometimes without knowing why. I love some great deeds done by men, though I’ve long ceased perhaps to have faith in them, yet from old habit one’s heart prizes them. Here they have brought the soup for you, eat it, it will do you good. It’s first-rate soup, they know how to make it here…”
It’s a random mention, but why not? For the brothers, perhaps soup provides more of a tangible relief from life than than their more ethereal topics at hand.
Oxtail Soup
Unless you’re lucky enough to live in a tropical climate, we’re in Dostoyevsky-mode now, folks. And may I suggest something that the brothers might have enjoyed? Perhaps Borscht or an Oxtail Soup? Or maybe a White Bean and Escarole Soup?
Here’s another something/something that helped chase away my blues. My publishing company is reducing (for a limited time) the price of a physical copy of THE WELCOME HOME DINER. I’m grabbing copies for book club signings as I can’t get them any cheaper than this–even with an author discount. (US residents only: $6.99 per paperback. Free shipping for Amazon Prime, recipes included)
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