What I Ate in One Year: (and related thoughts)

by Stanley Tucci

We ate at a place called Checchino dal 1887 in the neighborhood of Testaccio.

Isabella, John, and I went to a restaurant called L’Eau Vive that Isabella’s mother, Ingrid Bergman, used to frequent.

Although I was raised a Catholic, I never fully acquired the assurance of belief and therefore never really believed. Though I don’t miss going to church every Sunday, I do miss the certainty of ceremony and the security of reverence. But now, in the early winter of my years, it’s through nature, art, and my children that I experience reverence, and in moments around the table that I experience ceremony. All guilt-free.

Checco Er Carettiere, a favorite restaurant of mine that I had not been to for many years.

I am a soup lover. To me soup may be the greatest culinary invention. It can be made with two ingredients or two hundred twenty-two ingredients. It can be served hot or cold. It can be cooked fast or slow. It can be eaten for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. It can be vegetarian, vegan, paleo, pescatarian, or carnivorian. It can be simple or complex. It comforts, it soothes, it refreshes, and it restores. Soup is life in a pot.

he is talented, is smart, is thoughtful, and (as I said) loves good food and drink, which might be the most important criteria for a friendship.

Home-cooked food strengthens our bonds when we are together, keeps us connected when we are apart, and sustains the memory of us when we have passed away.

We were told that, like the rest of their countrymen, they were on strike because Macron had raised the retirement age from thirty-five to thirty-six or something like that.

Tucci Minestrone Extra-virgin olive oil 1 large yellow onion, diced 1 large red onion, chopped 2 cloves garlic, chopped 3 celery stalks, diced 3 small leeks, chopped 3 small spring onions, chopped 3 carrots, diced 2 medium zucchini, diced 2 quarts chicken stock or vegetable stock 6 pomodorini, quartered 2 large potatoes, cut into small cubes 2 bunches spring greens (chard or cavolo nero can be substituted) 4 basil leaves 1 Parmigiano-Reggiano rind (about the size of your palm) Salt Freshly ground black pepper 2 (14-ounce) cans or jars precooked cannellini beans (optional) 2 cups fresh or frozen peas (defrosted) 2 to 3 cups grated Parmigiano-Reggiano or Pecorino 1 cup chopped parsley

Pour some olive oil in a large pot. Add the onions, garlic, celery, leeks, and spring onions and sauté over medium-low heat until they have softened. Add the carrots and zucchini and cook for another 5 minutes. Add the stock and bring it to a boil. Add the tomatoes, potatoes, greens, basil, Parmigiano rind, and salt and pepper to taste. Reduce the heat to a low boil and cook for 20 to 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. (The beans can be added at this time if you’re using them.) After 15 minutes, add the peas and cook for another 5 to 10 minutes. Serve in large bowls with croutons, the grated Parmigiano or Pecorino, a drizzle of EVOO, and a sprinkle of the chopped parsley. Hearty. Healthy.

Movement is life affirming and life extending.

When someone you love dies, you absorb them. You take on their feelings and simultaneously experience life through their eyes and their heart as well as your own. In essence, you become them. This is not a conscious choice. It just happens. And it happens because one is not yet fully capable of accepting that person’s absence. It keeps them alive. Or at least it makes them less dead.

In time her presence would slip into his body, his heart, and his thoughts, sometimes gently, sometimes joltingly, but it would never last for as long as it would today. Eventually, years from now, it would alight on the tip of his soul for just a second or two, carrying with it a shiver of the past and a glimpse of a future that might have been. And then it would disappear once again.

Here is what we cooked that week for either lunch or dinner: Tagliatelle all’aglione Risotto with zucchini and asparagus Orecchiette with pesto, potatoes, and green beans

Flank steak seared in oil and butter and red wine Frittatas with mushrooms and black truffle Smashed burgers with Emily’s burger sauce and fries Green salads Cucumber salads Tomato salads (sometimes with thinly sliced red onions) Emily’s kale, lettuce, and cucumber salad Cannellini beans, red onions, and canned tuna Green beans with vinaigrette Pasta bakes (one with leftovers of the wonderful Bolognese Emily made for the kids and one with just plain tomato sauce; Fee and I added béchamel to both) Orecchiette with sautéed onions, garlic, zucchini, and lots of Parmigiano