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On the same Italy trip when Hank asked me to learn to make Ragù al Cinghiale (click for the link to that post), my son, Daniel, fell in love with ribollita and wanted to make it at home. Ribollita is one of the famous Tuscan peasant soups that was originally a way for people to use stale bread. (Pappa al Pomodoro is a similarly-inspired Tuscan soup which is tomato-based.)

In an authentic version of ribollita, one of the key ingredients is cavolo nero, also called lacinato kale. Back when Daniel first decided he wanted to make it at home, this green leafy vegetable was not easy to find here. After a bit of research and trial & error, we figured out an easy, delicious version using frozen spinach and canned beans (instead of dried). Though now I see cavolo nero in the stores, this version is a perfect “pantry” recipe.

Although we are months past the Festival of Lights, let us remember that Hanukkah is one of myriad observances at or around the winter solstice, the darkest time of the year in the northern hemisphere, and that these holidays look hopefully toward a return to light and life and a new growing season. And now, although the days are getting longer, we are metaphorically in a dark time, and we hope and pray for a return to light, to better days.

I always forget how much I adore this recipe! Hank never believes canned tuna on pasta is going to be good, then remarks with great surprise how tasty it is! This is something my parents used to make often, as it could come together easily with pantry ingredients. With their busy lives and tiny NYC apartment kitchen, this recipe allowed them to have a great home-cooked meal without much planning.

Because it uses humble pantry ingredients, I rarely think about making it. Until this week. A can of tuna, a can of white (cannellini) beans, some lemon, and pasta is all you need.

We had some bread that was getting stale. Usually we try to slice bread and put it in the freezer before it gets to this point, but right now the freezer has not an inch of space. I’m also feeling like I need to use everything that I have and not waste anything, so I decided to make some stuffing!

OK – I should be precise. I made dressing. Stuffing is cooked in the bird, dressing is cooked in a pan. (On Thanksgiving, I usually make both because just in the turkey is not enough for my family!)

I spent a long time looking for a peanut or sesame noodle recipe I really liked. One of the things that annoyed me the most with earlier attempts was that my food processor became an oily mess from making the sauce and clean up took too long. This recipe is so much easier because you just need a bowl big enough to toss the noodles after you make the sauce in the bottom of the bowl.

This is also one of our go-to Tanglewood recipes, along with the grilled salmon shown here because it’s a meal you can eat on your lap with only a fork! We hope and pray that in a few short months we will again be sharing picnics with friends on the Tanglewood lawn.

I’ll admit, my pantry may not look like most. I’m the kind of person who sees preserved lemons at a good price and buys three jars! Fortunately, I also subscribe to the website Eat Your Books, so now I can enter “preserved lemons” to find things to do with them as I cook my way through my pantry.

To digress before today’s recipe – I would highly recommend Eat Your Books for recipe ideas, especially now. You don’t even have to be a member. One of the pages on this website is a virtual library of online recipes and you can search by ingredient, and then narrow your result by lots of other features, such as course, cuisine, or dietary needs, and you will be directed to a link that includes the full recipe.

My guess is that many of us will be making a lot of pasta in the days ahead. So here’s something you can do with leftover pasta. Of course you can just warm leftover pasta in the microwave and have a decent lunch, but a frittata is so much better!

On the plus side this will work with pretty much any strand or shape pasta. The downside, however, is that I don’t have an exact recipe.