A brothy bean soup and how we managed to find our apartment in Italy.

Plus, a bit of This & That.

Brothy Bean Soup

I'm very inspired by the way so many Italian chefs and home cooks use every part of every ingredient to make the most delicious food, so I'm getting in the habit of looking in the fridge and working with what I have on hand. I made a big batch of my pinto beans (using a similar bean Andre found at the market) early in the week and had about three cups of the beans in their broth left in the fridge tonight, so I decided to use it as a base for a comforting bean soup. It turned out absolutely delicious and was the perfect homecooked meal we needed after a long and rainy day. Any leftover brothy beans and veggies would make an excellent base for this soup, so feel free to improvise and use what you have on hand! And you don't have to add chicken if you want to keep it vegetarian; I just had a little in the fridge I wanted to use up.

BROTHY BEAN SOUP

Serves 4

• 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil + more for finishing

• 1 shallot, peeled and minced

• 1 medium carrot, peeled and finely diced

• 2-3 Yukon Gold potatoes, finely diced

• 1 small fennel bulb, finely diced

• Pinch of dried red chili flake

• 3 cups leftover cooked beans in all their broth. I used these.

• 1-2 cups water, depending on how brothy you want the soup

• 1 cup leftover chopped cooked rotisserie chicken (optional)

• sea salt

• black pepper

• Optional: Good toasted bread for dipping

In a large pot, heat the olive oil on medium. Add the shallot, carrot, potatoes, and fennel and stir to coat—season with a pinch of sea salt, the chili flake, and a little black pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, for a few minutes until the vegetables start to get a little tender. Add the cooked beans in all of their liquid and the additional water. Stir to combine. Bring to a boil and then reduce the heat to a simmer. Cook for 20 minutes or until the veggies are tender. Add the chicken and cook for a few minutes to warm through. Taste and season with sea salt and pepper if necessary.

Divide the soup into individual bowls, top with a drizzle of olive oil, and serve with some really good toasted bread.

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Finding Our Apartment

One of the requirements necessary for Andre to stay beyond the 90-day tourist Visa limit is to apply for residency and then start the citizenship process in Italy. In order to do so, one must have a lease in place, not an Airbnb or hotel stay, and physically be in that location for the entirety of the case until citizenship is received. As you can imagine, this was extremely complicated to figure out while still living in Los Angeles and the single highest point of stress leading up to our move. Andre took a trip to Turin in the spring to look at neighborhoods and schools, so we knew where to search for apartments and houses, but that was it. For a while, we went back and forth between living more in the city in an apartment near conveniences and finding a home in the countryside with more space and privacy. Believe me, there were many moments when my fantasy of living in an Italian farmhouse in the rolling hills took over! But we were worried it might be too isolating in the beginning phase. So, we decided to rent an apartment for the first few years, allowing us more access to the city as we got used to living in a new country.