This is soup weather: bitter cold, windy, and a three-day snowstorm.  The antidote is a hearty, fortifying soup which will stick to your ribs and taste great.  I found one online the other day: Trattoria Mario’s Ribollita, from a small Florentine family restaurant.  The recipe and accompanying story were on the Divina Cucina blog.

Of course, we know that this simple soup takes about 3 days to make, but it really is easy.

• Day 1: soak very good Italian white beans at least overnight, up to 24 hours
• Day 2: cook the beans, then add to the vegetables and simmer into a soup.  Cool it, layering slices of stale bread on top, and refrigerate overnight; with a bit of forethought, I had sliced my remaining week-old seeded rye bread from BirchTree, and left it out on the counter to dry well for two days.
• Day 3: heat the soup again, stirring it to enable the bread to fall apart into the soup, making the texture creamy and delicious

Mine was ready to eat last night, and it provided plenty leftover for lunch today and tomorrow.  Serve with a side of salad, and crostini, if you have some great crusty breads, as we did this weekend.

Last night I had my crostini with a Negroni on the rocks.  Today the choice was Odoardi’s Savuto from Calabria.  Sit and let it digest for 90 minutes, then go out and snowplow another 15″ of the white stuff from the driveway.  Salut!