Minestrone di ceci e costine di maiale

In the dead of winter, nothing is more warming than this hearty soup from the Piedmontese town of Casale Monferrato. Milanese cooks prepare a similar soup called cisrà, originally made with a pig’s head and traditionally served on November I, the Day of the Dead. Pork skin, or rind, is used in this soup, an exotic ingredient for many cooks outside Italy. Called cotenna or cotica, it is the outer skin of the pig, and although it is not essential, you might try to talk yo