I am debating what to make tonight.  Today is the day that my students get picked up by Pino and taken off to the wine region of Brunello (and leather.)  Montapulciano, Montelcino, and Pienza.
When they come home it is usually a few minutes past the time when appetites are ready to be sated.   Considering that and the frost, I am leaning towards sausages, with cannellini and tomato, because after that, there is no such thing as hungry.  It’s a matter of searing off the sausages, adding a little garlic, onion and sage until they are completely softened and delicious, and then adding a can of squished plum tomatoes.  When this has cooked for a good twenty minutes, add cannellini that you have made from dry by simmering them for a few hours first in water, olive oil, fresh thyme or sage and a clove of garlic, or if you are in a pinch, from a well rinsed can.  Let this go for another twenty minutes, tasting for deliciousness.  It will go well with stuffed zucchini or mushroom bruschetta and a crunchy salad of endive leaves, radicchio and watercress.  For dessert tiny little cream puffs.  Because when it goes from warm to cold outside you need little bites of gioa throughout the day–music or the sight of birds lifting through the fog from the fields, or a fire that finally roars from its own strength after the first half hour of encouraging it with tiny sticks and matches.