Inspired by my recent trip, I decided to try my hand at ribbolita, the Tuscan bread soup. I riffed off the recipe from the Silver Spoon, based on what I had available. Recipes for this dish vary widely on ingredients as well as the time required to cook the bread. The Silver Spoon recommended making the soup without the bread, then adding the bread and cooking in the oven for 15 minutes.
This is a hearty, tasty soup. So long as you have the chicken stock available, it isn't hard to make, either. The combination of beans, greens, and mirepoix make for a soup that is both hearty and earthy. The bread adds a subtle texture to the soup.
I made candied ginger a few years ago. It's not something I would do every day but I had a lot of fun doing it. I recently acquired a pressure cooker and it inspired an interesting idea to me: why not make candied ginger in the pressure cooker? It should be very soft and flavorful. Here is the result. I peeled two large ginger roots, cut them into small cubes, and put them in the pressure cooker with heavily sugared water. The traditional method first boils the ginger in plain water to soften it and then again in sugar water to candy it. The resulting candy was very tender but still with the characteristic ginger texture. It was also sweet without being overpowering. The traditional method leaves a lot of sugar crystallized around the ginger. The pressure cooker gives a much more subtle result. The ginger stays moist even after it cools but you can dry it in the oven at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes. That inspired me to dip it in chocolate. While I was in the b...


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