Winter

Ingredients

I know it is a cliché, but this soup really can be made in less than an hour and tastes like it simmered all day. Minestrone lends itself to variations, so improvise with the ingredients that you have on hand. If you were wise enough to freeze pesto at the end of the summer, you can turn this soup into Minestrone alla Genovese by stirring about 1/4 cup of the pesto into the pot just before serving.

There's nothing quite as homespun as a bowl of tomato soup with a classic grilled cheese sandwich.

This after-dinner drink is like a little ray of boozy citrus sunshine at the end of a heavy meal and should be served very cold, in little shot glasses.

We all need a great beef stew in our cooking back pocket, and this one’s mine. It’s fairly classic in its preparation — the meat is browned, then piled into a sturdy pot and slow-roasted with a lot of red wine, a splash of brandy, and some onions, garlic, carrots, and a little herb bouquet to keep it company. It finishes spoon-tender, sweet and winey through and through, and burnished the color of great-grandma’s armoire.

Ingredients
 

For fast suppers with sensational flavors, think Thai-style curries. Contrasts really fly in curries. For instance finish a curry of leftover chicken and roasted vegetables with a few chunks of pineapple and a lot of lime juice. Use this Winter Squash Curry as your basic formula and take off from there.

Leftover parsley and walnut pesto is great with spaghetti.

Bitter greens with candied lemon peel, pine nuts, balsamico, and Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese become a salad destined for the holidays.