Italian Day Of Dead Soup Recipe

This soup, minestra dei morti ("Soup of the dead") is traditionally eaten for day of the dead (all souls' day), november 2, in milan and surrounding areas. It has ancient roots though, perhaps dating back all the way to ancient rome. In the world of the ancients, beans and seeds were connected to the afterworld and were often part of funeral rites and used as offerings for the dead. Fava beans and chickpeas, in particular, were the traditional foods for day of the dead, a day dedicated to honoring the memory of deceased loved ones and ancestors. In a soup called cisr monferrina, rare black chickpeas were used. It was believed that on this day, the souls of the deceased came back among the living to share a meal. Some villagers in italy would even set a place at the table for these special visitors. This soup was traditionally made by boiling an entire pig's head, and while that's gruesome enough to make it appropriate for halloween, it's not practical for most home cooks these days, so we'll use bone-in pork instead. And traditionally, dried chickpeas are used, requiring at least an overnight soak plus two to three hours of cooking. This is a more modern version designed for practicality and time savings, but still rich and satisfying. Traditionally, the pork is cooked in large pieces together with the other ingredients, then removed. The vegetable soup in pork broth is served as a primo, or starter course, topped generously with grated parmesan cheese, while the pork was served as a secondo, or the main course, together with small, cornichon-like pickles (cetriolini), pickled peperoncini peppers and small pickled onions (cipolline sottaceto). Piquant salsa verde would also be a great condiment to use as an accompaniment if you wish to serve the meat this way. If, however, you want to leave the meat in the soup and serve it all together, the heartier soup can be a one-dish meal in itself, perhaps accompanied by a salad and some crusty italian bread or garlic bread. It's also traditionally made in a large terracotta pot, but you can use any dutch oven or any large, heavy-walled saucepan.