At home even friends who’ve lived in Italy enjoy this recipe, so we’ve continued to serve it for company as well as our family. I started to prepare it this afternoon just as Amelia was beginning a Zoom interview for a college she’d love to attend. I had some butterflies in my stomach on her behalf, hoping she’d learn from the interview experience and feel that her preparation time had been well-spent. As I chopped the onion and smashed the garlic, the old calm came to me that preparing this soup had afforded twenty years ago. Here’s hoping it will offer you the same.