52 Ancestors Week 49: Family Recipe

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 49

The theme for Week 49 is "Family Recipe." In many families, the winter holidays mean a time for breaking out favorite recipes. For me, it isn't Thanksgiving or Christmas without cranberry salad. (It isn't the stuff in a can -- it's cooked cranberries, apples, walnuts, and celery in black cherry Jello. Can you tell I'm from the Midwest?) Think about a recipe that's special in your family, or the person who made that recipe special. Share that story this week.

I can see people drooling already.

    I'm honestly a little skeptical about celery in black cherry Jello. I'm sure it's very good. I'll try just about anything to be honest. Just don't give me anything from the "Olive Garden" and we'll be good. Everyone has their own recipe that's been passed down through their ancestors and in my case I have quite the cookbook of recipes. Makes sense, right? I'm half Italian and obviously I'd have some Italian recipes in my bag of tricks. Mmmm....You'd think that. But, my grandma Ollie's way of cooking was mostly just  "A pinch of this." or a "pinch of that". When she really got worked up, it was usually "Let's put a little of this in!" And that's how I got a chicken neck in the chicken soup once. Mmm....Eat your heart out Gordon Ramsay.

    Now, this didn't mean that she was a bad chef. No, no. Not in the least! She was an amazing cook! She just tended to eyeball most of her recipes from time to time and never wrote things down.  Thankfully, her sisters kept most of the recipes their mother Clementina  put on paper. They were they passed down to the children and so on. That reminds me. I need to ask my cousin Sandy if she'd let me look at the molasses cookie recipe or the eggplant parm one. Those are AMAZING!

    While Olympia didn't write things down, it didn't stop her from tasting any Italian dish my mother made. She would often offer pointers here and there as well. My mother taught herself how to make the best cheese lasagna you have ever had and it was so well liked that even the Italians in the audience praised the dish. Amazing, right? The French-Canadian lady knew how to make world class lasagna!

    The story of how my mother started making lasagna isn't exactly a closley guarded secret. She offered to make it one year for a special occasion and has been doing it ever since. We normally have lasagna with Thanksgiving dinner like most Italian-American families. However, we've had the pasta dish on New Year's Day and even on Easter. Normally it's relegated to Thanksgiving dinner as a perfect side dish to go with turkey, stuffing and the rest of the trimmings. If you thought turkey put you in a food coma, imagine what a slice of lasagna will do to you!

    The recipe itsself is pretty standard. We obviously never made the noodles by hand. That would take forever. So, like most Italians we either bought Prince pasta or Barilla to use as a base. Side note. Barilla claims it's the number one pasta brand in Italian. I'm going to have to conduct a study on that with some cousins of mine. Friends in Italy have said it's a little expensive.

    The next thing we have to get for our dish is the sauce. Usually this makes the lasagna really good because you have to start making the sauce the day before. This gives the sauce time to age a little before use. My mother tends to buy Prego sauce as it tastes better than the other brands. Sometimes she'll use a pinch of her homemade sauce! It just depends on the time of year and the availability of the sauce.

    After you get the tomato sauce and the pasta all situated, you have to get the cheese ready. For this we use a healthy blend of ricotta, mozzerella and parmesan cheese. Once you get all the ingredients ready, my mother layers it by first putting the sauce in the pan first and then the noodles. Once it is expertly layered, it's put in the oven and in no time at all the lasagna is ready to serve. It's filling. But, what a way to go. Keep in mind we also add meatballs and sausages on the side to go with this feast.

Smiling because of the toys or smiling because
lasagna was cooking and we smelt it?: YOU
Decide!

     My mother undoubtedly worked hard on the lasagna every year for as long as I can remember. My brother and I were practically raised on the dish. There's really no question if we loved it or not. We did. In fact, my brother asks for it every year and we leave plenty of leftovers at his house.

    Did Ollie like it, though? Of course she did. She and her sisters loved my mom's cooking. Sure they'd offer a tip here and there. But, it was never out of rudeness. No. They'd say something like "I bet if you add some ___, some of the flavor will come out". They'd just offer tips every now and then. I just need to ask her to write down the recipe!

   

     There you have it. The basics on my mom's lasagna recipe. It's not really a closely guarded secret as other recipes are. However, it's a solid one and the results more than speak for themselves. It's a very special recipe for me and my family because it's been a family tradition for as long as I can remember. Every time I have it, I think of Thanksgiving dinners of years gone by and how my grandmother, her sisters the cousins and basically everyone on my dad's side would absolutely love the Italian dishes a decidedly non Italian lady made for her family. It just goes to show you don't have to be Italian to make a great Italian dish. 

See ya next time!