A Journey of a Thousand Miles Begins With ... Too Much Luggage

I don’t blog about cooking or recipes very often – I’m not a confident cook and don’t experiment a great deal. But I love soup and lately have become obsessed with finding a great lentil soup recipe.

Primarily, this is because I recently discovered that lentils pack an enormous amount of iron as well as protein. I was recently diagnosed as being beyond anaemic—my doctor discovered the iron levels in my blood were so low as to be almost non-existent. No wonder my lips have been white for the past several years. I thought I was just aging badly.

So – among many other things, including heavy iron supplements and more beef – I’ve been paying much more attention to lentils. I like lentils, and my friend Letizia suggested this recipe, which I tried on Sunday.

The taste is fantastic, the recipe was incredibly simple, and it also includes one of my favourite new foods, farro – a grain from Umbria. I think it is related to spelt.

But, I’m not sure that I’m preparing it correctly, because after 30 minutes of simmering, the broth for my soup was almost entirely absorbed by the grain and the lentils. The texture wasn’t unpleasant at all, but I tend to think of soup as being ..... soupy. I must check with Letizia, to see if this is typical of Umbrian soups.

But I would highly recommend the recipe, the zuppa was tasty and filling, a full meal in itself.

Recipe

1 large onion, sliced thin
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1-2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger
1 cup/250 gr. small brown whole lentils
1 cup/250 gr. farro (or spelt)
parsley, finely chopped
4 cups/ 1 lt. water or vegetable or chicken stock
1 large garlic clove, halved lengthwise
1/2 slice toasted Italian crusty bread/person
1 tablespoon freshly grated Parmesan/person

In a 4-quart heavy saucepan make a “soffritto” by softening the onion in olive oil over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until pale golden. Add ginger and stir for 1 min. Add lentils and spelt (farro), hot water or stock and simmer, stirring occasionally, until soup is thickened and lentils are soft but still retaining their shape, about 30 minutes. Season soup with salt and pepper only when cooked.

At this stage the cooled soup can be frozen. When ready to serve defrost, add some water - it will be quite solid – and bring to a low boil.

Toast bread slices, rub generously with fresh garlic and then cut them into small cubes. Ladle the soup into soup bowls, scatter over each bowl the chopped parsley, bread cubes , a teaspoon of good extra virgin olive oil and a sprinkle of Parmesan. Serve immediately.

The following quotations are for my friend and fellow blogger Kathy (Trekcapri) http://trekcapri.blogspot.com/ who has just adopted Elizabeth. Congratulations to you both!

(BTW, the photo above closely resembles a Great Cat I once knew. And loved. My brother's late, lamented Mrs. Mittens -- an extremely friendly Manx -- was utterly charming, inquisitive -- but burned through her 9 lives all too quickly.)

Those who will play with cats must expect to be scratched.
Cervantes
When I play with my cat, who knows whether she is not amusing herself with me more than I with her.
Montaigne
No matter how much the cats fight, there always seem to be plenty of kittens.
Abraham Lincoln
Cats are intended to teach us that not everything in nature has a function.
Joseph Wood Krutch
The smallest feline is a masterpiece.
Leonardo Da Vinci
If man could be crossed with the cat, it would improve man but deteriorate the cat.
Mark Twain
Women, poets, and especially artists, like cats; delicate natures only can realize their sensitive nervous systems.
Helen M. Winslow
It's better to feed one cat than many mice.
Norwegian Proverb
There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats.
Albert Schweitzer
The trouble with cats is that they've got no tact.
P.G. Wodehouse
There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats.
Albert Schweitzer
Did St. Francis really preach to the birds? Whatever for? If he really liked birds he would have done better to preach to the cats.
Rebecca West
Time spent with cats is never wasted.
Colette
How you behave toward cats here below determines your status in Heaven.
Robert A. Heinlein
There are no ordinary cats.
Colette
I like pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals.
Winston Churchill

I've been homesick for Perugia recently. The capital city of Italy's Umbria province is, to me, extremely cool. Many layers of history, fascinating sites, great food, and a lot of wonderful art. I'm especially interested in Renaissance art, and while there is a great deal of that in Perugia, there's one very small spot that is a favourite.

The Collegio del Cambio -- the original office of Perugia's powerful money-changers -- is so jam-packed with frescos by the master Perugino (with a little help from his students, including a teenaged Raphael) that they almost threaten to overwhelm a visitor. Particularly, because the space is so small.

Remarkably, this exquisite jewel-box of a sight doesn't seem to draw much attention. This amazes me -- not only is it exquisite, but it is so easily accessible and visitor friendly! It is tucked inside the imposing Palazzo dei Priori set right smack on Perugia's main street, the Corso Vanucci, a sweeping pedestrian mall named for the great artist (Perugino's real name was, and I suppose, still is, Vannucci.)

The Collegio itself is so small, really just two rooms, that even a day tripper or a visitor popping up to the historic centre of Perugia for lunch, could stop in for 30 minutes or so and have an amazing experience!

Guidebook writer Ian Campbell Ross has argued that the Cambio is perhaps the best surviving example in Umbria of Renaissance humanist culture, and one of the best examples of Perugino's harmonious art. That is to say, Perugino confidently fused Christian and pagan cultures in these frescos that decorate the sala dell’Udienza, or the audience chamber of the money-changers.

Perugino had earlier became famous for his frescos in the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican, particularly one depicting Christ giving the Keys of the Church to St. Peter. (The Sistine Chapel isn't entirely Michelangelo!)

Perugino was then hired for this gig by Perugia's money-changers guild and began work in about 1498. In the Collegio frescos, he brought together images representing the four Cardinal Virtues - Prudence, Justice, Strength and Temperance - using figures taken from Greek and Roman history; with the three Theological Virtues - Faith, Hope and Charity - represented by the Transfiguration of Christ, the Nativity and the Prophets and the Sibyls.

On the ceiling, he painted the seven planets on carts being drawn across the skies by various animals.

Fans of Raphael might want to keep an eye an out for the figure of Fortitude, seated on a cloud in the second bay of the left wall. According to Frommer's, art historians attribute this figure to the 17-year-old Raphael, who lived and worked some years in Perugia. Frommer's also suggests that Perugino used Raphael's face as the model for the prophet Daniel, which can be seen on the right wall.

By the way, the second photo is a Perugino I really like, but is not in Perugia. It's by Perugino and Filippino Lippi, The Deposition from the Cross and is found in the Galleria dell' Accademia, Florence.

What is a good life? Everyone has their own definition and it seems these days, the differences can be pretty extreme. For a suicide bomber, it might mean martyrdom, murder, mayhem rolled into one. For certain Wall Street bankers and capital market players, it could mean destroying the world's economy for their own individual gain.

I don't think most of us would accept either of those definitions of what constitutes a good life. Instead, maybe we'd look for something along the lines of Aristotle's definition of the golden mean -- finding a balance between extremes. (The photo above is a fragment from Raphael's School of Athens fresco in the Vatican Museums, imaging Aristotle and his teacher Plato in conversation)

Of course, who talks about Aristotle these days? He lived and died more than 2,300 years ago, so how is an old, dead Greek philosopher relevant today?

Canadian author Annabel Lyon tries to tackle that issue in a pretty interesting and certainly compelling novel The Golden Mean, which imagines Aristotle's life during the period when he was tutor to Alexander the Great. Aristotle's relationship with his wife, his father, his friends (who are few) and especially with the rather scary young Alexander, make for an interesting storyline.

Admittedly, the novel is a bit dry in places and Lyon's efforts to bring the philosopher down to earth seem a bit strained at times. Aristotle suffers depressions, he thinks women are feeble imitations of men, and he's embarrassed at his bookishness, especially in a world where the soldier or action figure is the ideal man (which sounds a little like today!)

Lyon, in an interview late last year, tried to explain why Aristotle and his philosophy are just as relevant now as at the time when Alexander was attempting to conquer the globe.

She explained that after her university days, she found herself still turning to Aristotle's philosophy in times of stress. (Frankly, I do the same) One of those times was Sept. 11, 2001 when the terrorists attacks on the United States left her questioning many things about the world.

“I went through what I think a lot of people in the arts went through — I just wasn’t quite sure of the importance of what I was doing, the relevance of what I was doing, and stopped reading fiction for a little while,” said Lyon, who now teaches at the University of British Columbia.

“But I found that I could read my Aristotle because the questions that he poses there just remain so relevant and so current: ’What does it mean to live a good life, and what does it mean to avoid extremes, and what does it mean to be a good citizen?”’

That helped her to decide to write a fictionalized version of the 7-year period in Aristotle's life when, at the request of his old friend Philip of Macedon, he taught Philip's son, the young Alexander the Great.

I spent a week in Bologna last June, and was so busy with different things to see and eat, that I neglected to find Bologna’s rather hidden canals. But it seems that they’ll soon be easier for visitors to find.

According to a recent news story from the Italian news agency ANSA, some of Bologna’s long-lost network of canals, which have been buried for decades under pavement, are going to be restored and re-opened for everyone to enjoy.

(The first photo is from the web, the second I took from atop Bologna's Asinelli tower.)

Mayor Flavio Delbono said a preliminary project would focus on a 50-metre stretch in the historic centre but the initiative could eventually extend throughout Bologna, ANSA reported last week.

''This is a major plan to regenerate an important part of our city's historic centre,'' the mayor said. ''I hope the reopening of the canal can be considered in a calm fashion, in order to create a comfortable and attractive place in this striking stretch of Bologna''.

ANSA reports that the Reno Canal is the first waterway on the repair schedule. A tiny section of this canal reportedly is still above ground but most of it has long been buried.

A parking lot and part of the road would be torn up between Via Riva Reno and Via Galliera, revealing not only the water underneath but also the remains of an Ancient Roman bridge, said ANSA. The two banks of the canal would be connected by a footbridge, while cars would have the use of one side of the waterway.

Today, there are five main canals still running beneath Bologna's streets. The largest of these, the Navile, once boasted its own port and was constructed to link Bologna with the Po for trade and travel purposes. The Reno and the Savena were created to transport water around the city to other waterways, while the Cavaticcio and Moline canals were designed to power Bologna's watermills, according to ANSA.

While Bologna is unlikely to ever rival Venice, said Delbono, more waterways will be uncovered if this first stage goes well, and Bologna could eventually join the ranks of Europe's major rediscovered ''canal cities'', such as Strasbourg, Bruges and Birmingham, says ANSA.

It reports the mayor claimed that Bologna’s waterways would not only make the historic centre more pleasant for Bolognesi, they would also boost tourism and could even be used for commercial activities. According to the mayor, the proposal has been raised on various occasions by different neighbourhood committees over the years and enjoys wide popular support. No start date has yet been fixed but, once under way, the first stage of the project should take around 18 months.

''We are open to all ideas and proposals from everyone: the public, sector associations and various institutions,'' said Delbono. ''We want to revitalize this important part of the city but we will study the plan carefully, to ensure there is not a drop in parking availability''.

Bologna's canal system, which developed between the 12th and 16th centuries, played a crucial role in powering its industries and promoting trade. Water was diverted from the River Reno en route to the Po River and brought into the heart of the city.