Difficulty Level: Easy

I just finished reading Marcella Hazen's memoir Amarcord and she says that the hardest thing about writing her original cookbook The Classic Italian Cookbook was figuring out the amounts for the ingredients she used and then translating that into a recipe. She's an intuitive cook and she never bothered with recipes. She never handed out recipes to the students in her cooking classes because she felt that they would follow the recipe rather than following their taste.

Then I came upon a website that had a recipe that just listed the ingredients, without any measurements. I tried it last night for my dinner and it was delicious. Using the ingredient list as a stepping off point you can add or subtract to it as you like, and it doesn't get any easier. I didn't have any olives, but I had everything else and because I was eating alone, I could put in as many capers as I liked. I made extra barley, so I'm going to have it for lunch and I think I'll add some of my pickled green beans.

INGREDIENTS