A Winter Soup.

Still Life of Vegetables for the Soup, c. 1732 Jean-Baptiste-Simeon Chardin (1699-1779).

Opening the entrance door, the smell of the winter soup spread in the cold stairs. The house was unexpectedly dark and silent, but a pot gently simmered in the kitchen and the table was ready for two. Brown lentils boiled with a leave of bay, and, in a separate pan, finely dices of lard and chopped roasted chestnuts were ready to be cooked with sprigs of thyme and marjoram. There were slices of rustic bread in a plate in front of the bowls, and a bottle of red wine near the pitcher of water. Ingredients were not so different from those that could have been cooked in the big and smoky fireplace of the San Pietro Monastery (St Peter Monastery) in the Umbrian hill town of Gubbio, Italy, between the XVII and XVIII century. In the chilly and snowy months of winter, the kitchen could rely on “dried fruits, cereals and pulses, cheese, sausages and hams, lard or fish such as salted tuna and herrings.” There were cabbages and different varieties of salads, such as endive, radicchio and scarola, turnips but not potatoes, still unknown, and, from January, wild herbs gathered in the fields by peasants. Vegetables and stale bread were the main ingredients, but the most varied aliments could end up in the soup creating unusual combinations of sweet and salty flavors typical of that period. Pulses represented an important resource, cheap and abundant in every season. Hazelnut and chestnuts reinforced the soups, especially during Lent, when monks followed a strict fast and ate "lean" food. No meat broth was allowed in these periods, when fish triumphed and all sorts of tender herbs were used for the vegetable broth. Meat broth was not a popular product, especially when made with chickens and hens, considered expensive and reserved to special occasions, distinguished guests or in case of disease. In the short days of January, when snow covered fields and roads, the kitchen of the monastery followed the availability of the season and nothing was overlooked or wasted. Even snow, that the wise and provident monks stocked in a special tunnel called, neviera, from the Italian neve=snow. They heaped layer after layer of snow, then pressed it and covered with straw mats and bundles of wood to delay the inevitable dissolution. The neviera was useful to preserve food, but also to produce tasty sorbets with currant jelly in the hot days of summer. 

Now as then, nothing could beat a bowl of smoking soup to hold in the hands in the dark winter nights. The entrance door was opening, and a lovely voice invaded the house.

Note: 

The above mentioned soup of lentils is not a historical recipe but a tasteful idea from La Cucina Italiana, famous Italian cookery and food monthly magazine. 

Here is the link to the English edition: /http://lacucinaitalianamagazine.com/

Further reading:

Alla Tavola del Monaco. Il quotidiano e l’eccezionale nella cucina del monastero tra XVII e XVIII secolo con 100 ricette dell’epoca, Giuseppe Maria Nardelli, Quattroemme, Ponte San Giovanni (Perugia) 1998.

Photos:

TravelinaGarden.
Paintings:
Still Life of Vegetables for the Soup, c.1732. Jean-Baptiste-Simeon Chardin (1699-1779) French painter, Oil on canvas.

www.bridgemanartondemand.com.

Natura morta di verdura verza, Natura morta spighe di grano, (Still life of vegetables cabbage, Still life ears of corn), 1863–1865. Dori Antonio (?-1865), Italian painter, Paper/tempera paint. www.culturaitalia.it