Zuppa in Toscana

I love to make soup. It's hearty, filling, healthy and it's a food that makes you feel warm and loved. Last night when we went to the Pam market to provision the house, I told Linda I was in the mood for soup so we picked up onions, beautiful purple carrots, celery, cabbage, tomato paste, and some big cheap beef parts with a lot of fat and bone--the perfect pieces for a flavorful zuppa. 

This morning, I seared the beef, added the veggies and olive oil and let them get some color, then I added the water and tom paste and headed outside with a pair of scissors to forage for some herbs. Luckily, in the yard, there is timo, salvia, rosmarino and lauro--just what I needed. 

I let it simmer all morning while we did laundry, ate breakfast and talked. I turned off the stove when we left for a wallow at the Fonteverde Spa in San Casciano dei Bagni. When we returned, I removed the bay leaves and herb stems, chopped up the meat, which was falling off the bone, and added a handful of farfallini, tiny butterfly pasta.

Lunch was a bottle of fizzy Pignoletto, sharp, creamy blue cheese, Gaeta olives and tarralli, then a bowl of Donna's Zuppa di Radicofani. It was a good and relaxing way to begin our week in Tuscany.