Roberto finds a soup recipe that a witch named Bella Vacchi made for four popes, beginning with Innocent X. Roberto and Joe travel to San Marino, where they find aspiring novelist Elena Campana renting Bella's house, which is still in good repair. Roberto, Joe, and Elena assemble the ingredients for the soup, which takes three months to make, according to the recipe. When they make the soup, Joe realizes it's basically motsu nikomi (a stew of cow or pig intestines with miso and fried tofu), although the witch's soup is made from horse intestines and fermented fava beans. One of the witch's ingredients (poison from a toad) also has an intoxicating effect like sake.