My friend Antonia loves squash and ginger. She's from Salerno, where a lot of food is cooked al tegame, "in a saucepan," or in padella, "in a skillet" - on top of the stove, that is. This zucca dish, an original Antonia creation, was one of the contorni gracing her beautiful dining table one evening, mid-autumn, when I was in Milan gathering information for this book. In my honor, the main course was a selection of contorni. A delicious polpettone, meat loaf, was offered, offhandedly, to those who absolutely had to have some meat. The occasion reminded me of a rather well-known statement from Thomas Jefferson, who said, "I eat little animal food and that as a condiment for the vegetables."