Stewed Borlotti Beans with Polenta

My favorite way to cook, the cooking that makes me happiest, is the kind of cooking you do on the fly: no planning, no prepping. You just see what you have already on hand and you make dinner. And often that dinner is way better than the dinner you spend a week prepping for, shopping for and methodically executing. I have a theory about this. The theory involves cravings: the food that you crave in a specific moment directly correlates to something that your body wants. So, when you're making dinner on the fly, if you add an extra pinch of red chile flakes? That's because your body's craving some heat. And that's why the dinner you make on the fly is often so satisfying.

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