Something with molasses in it! 😛

I do most of the cooking here (Joan does all the baking…from scratch!) so occasionally I get inspired to combine my two other passions. Glad you enjoy it, too.

Keep inflicting. Others like myself share a passion for food and history as well as the outdoors.

Yep. As mentioned, this is more the (very!) classic recipe not much changed since the days of Imperial Rome; or before. A with many “peasant dishes” the meat is more for flavoring than actually being the central part of the meal. Sausage is among the cheaper meats as pigs are easy to raise vs cattle, eat everything, and sausages tend to be easy to make. An ah, have “fillers” esp in earlier times!

Though Rome knew rice, apparently it was an expensive import from India and used for medicinal purposes. Rice did not get grown widely until the 1400s. http://www.riceandwine.com/rice/history.php
And rice is more part of the northern Italian tradition vs. the southern Italian and Sicilian tradition that makes up the bulk of Italian-American cuisine. As mentioned, some recipes do call for pasta and lentils, though.

One *vegan* favorite is the “Greens and beans.” Doing some sleuthing, that recipe is also equally old! If any meat is added, it is typically a tiny amount to flavor the dish more than anything.
https://www.camelliabrand.com/recipes/beans-and-greens-soup/

Maybe someday I’ll do a food and history blog instead of inflicting these posts on my readers every couple of months. 🙂

Thank you,

n. brown