In Ponchielli's Lombardy, the meal revolves around the primo (a rice or pasta dish in broth, the heart of the meal), followed by the secondo (meat or boiled meat) accompanied by a contorno and preserved condiments like mostarda. The dolce and sweets (torrone) crown festive days. The main midday meal was taken with family or colleagues at the osteria. Hot drinks and local wines warmed the mists of the Po plain.

Golden thread of Milanese kitchens, saffron tints the rice a solar yellow and perfumes the bourgeois table. In Cremona and Milan, it is the accessible luxury that transforms an everyday dish into a small ceremony — like a copper line in a score.