Many of my favorite dishes are the ones that have the ability to transport. You inhale, take a bite, and suddenly you’re not sitting at your kitchen table anymore, you’re off exploring the world or being whisked back a couple of decades and remembering a dinner you ate half a lifetime ago.
This soup is one of those dishes; it’s a soup that transports. As soon as it started to simmer, I breathed in, and thought, “ahhh…Italy”. While it’s not a replica of any dish I’ve eaten on Italian soil, the smell of squid and artichokes bubbling away in white wine and too much/just the right amount of olive oil smelled so unmistakably Italian. Immediately, I was flung from my dreary Minnesota kitchen, into the warm Mediterranean sun.
I’ve been really into brunch the past few weeks. Life has felt a bit frantic lately and carving out time for a leisurely morning meal on the weekends is a good way to make the day at least feel like it’s stretched out in front of you, even if the minute your plate is empty you’ve got to run off and go about other business.
One surefire way to determine the success of a recipe is to eat the dish every night for a week and if you find yourself craving more after it’s gone, you know you’ve got a winner. For instance, you know a batch of baked shells is worth sharing with the world (and by “the world” I mean my mother and the three other kind souls that read my blog) when you single-handedly take down three-quarters of the pan and, when they’re finally gone, you find yourself wishing for just one more dinner’s worth. Forgive me for a moment while I lament the fact that these little beauties will not be my dinner again tonight.