My husband and I attended a wedding a couple of weeks ago. The bride and her family have entertained us often with wonderful home-cooked food, simple all-American food that in part reflects their background in the Midwest.
But what is it like today for a couple starting out? Even coming from a tradition of home cooking, will they create a life that includes sitting down together for meals, first as a couple and later with their children?
So many of the 20-somethings I work with rely on take-out for their meals at work. Their moms still cook, but they have not established the habit of cooking for themselves, for brown bag lunches or for meals at home.
One of the first challenges could be having friends over for a meal. Suddenly pizza out of the carton doesn’t seem right, and there’s all that new wedding china and cutlery to show off.
You may already be good at grilling, which is a great party centerpiece in warm weather. Everything from plain hot dogs and burgers through fancy sausages, chicken, steaks and salmon or shrimp is more festive when cooked on the grill. Purchased or homemade potato salad, rolls for making sandwiches, condiments and (of course) s’mores round out the meal.
But in cooler weather, or if you don’t want to cook at the last minute, you need a standby that can be prepared ahead and reheated, and is in fact better the next day.
One good choice is lasagne. Here is a recipe that can be dressed up or down, using home made or store bought, everyday or gourmet ingredients according to time, budget and preference.
Because this and other baked-pasta dishes require no last minute work and careful timing, I prefer them to boiled and sauced pasta for entertaining. A dish of lasagne can also be cut into cubes and frozen for packing in lunch bags.
It’s also handy to know about if you need to contribute to a potluck or want to take food to a friend going through a rough patch.
For accompaniments, a lot of sources recommend a tossed green salad. This is fine, except salads actually require a lot of fuss at the last minute. An alternative would be a separate vegetable course served as a starter. Artichokes, for example, can be trimmed, boiled and left to drain before serving at room temperature with dishes of mayonnaise.
Then, with the lasagne itself, serve bakery French bread or rolls, good Greek-style olives, along with celery and carrot sticks. Ice cream and crisp cookies would make a festive dessert.
Lasagne
Adapted from “The New York Times Cook Book,” 1961 edition. There are more complicated (and probably more authentic) versions of lasagne, but this is a good, basic recipe that lends itself to variations. Makes 12 servings.
1 lb. lean ground beef or 1/2 lb. beef and 1/2 lb. mild Italian sausage
2 Tbs.. olive oil
3 cups basic tomato sauce (recipe follows) or purchased tomato sauce
1 lb. package lasagne
1 lb. ricotta cheese
1 lb. mozzarella cheese
1 cup or more grated Parmesan cheese
Step 1: Combine the meats, if using the ground beef and sausage. Shape into marble-sized balls and brown in the olive oil. Add the tomato sauce and simmer until ready to use, then strain out the meat balls.
Step 2: Follow directions on lasagne package for cooking. Many versions can now be used without pre-cooking.
Step 3: Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
Step 4: Using a baking dish about 2 inches deep and about 9-by-13 inches, cover the bottom sparingly with tomato sauce and line the dish with a layer of noodles. Dot with spoonfuls of ricotta, slivers of mozzarella and a little Parmesan. Spread with the sauce and add all the meatballs. Repeat with another layer of lasagne, sauce and cheeses.
Step 5: Bake about 45 minutes. Cool slightly before serving.
Variations:
n You can skip making meatballs. Just brown the meats and add to the tomato sauce.
n When I was first married, we used cottage cheese instead of ricotta and monterey jack instead of mozzarella. It’s a different dish then, but just as good.
Basic Tomato Sauce
Makes about 3 pints.
2 cups chopped onion
3 cloves garlic, chopped
3 Tbs. olive oil
3 1/2 cups canned tomatoes, undrained
2 small cans tomato paste
2 cups water or meat broth, approximately
1 bay leaf
1/2 Tbs. salt
1/4 Tbs. freshly ground black pepper
1/2 Tbs. oregano, or 1/4 tsp. each oregano and basil
Step 1: Sauté the onion and garlic in the olive oil until brown, stirring often. Add the tomatoes, tomato paste, water, bay leaf, salt and pepper. Simmer uncovered, stirring occasionally, about two hours. Add more water if necessary.
Step 2: Add the herbs and continue cooking about 15 minutes. Remove the bay leaf. The sauce should be thick. In addition to using in the lasagne, this can be served over cooked spaghetti or as an ingredient in other dishes such as eggplant parmigiana, meatloaf, soups and stews.
This can be stored in the refrigerator for about three days, or frozen for up to a year. (Use small containers so you can thaw just as much as you need.)
A note on cook books for beginners: There are dozens of them out there, but I have never seen one as useful as the 1961 edition of “The New York Times Cook Book,” edited by Craig Claiborne. It’s not specifically for beginners, although I received mine when I was still living at home. As my awareness grew, I realized it covered everything you really need to know and is still useful today. For example, it covers the preparation and serving of appetizers, from caviar to deviled eggs. It contains instructions on roasting beasts of all sizes, from quail to prime rib, by way of ordinary chicken and less ordinary venison.
Salad dressings, quick breads, yeast breads, pie crust, soup stocks, gravy – all the traditional stumbling blocks of learning to cook are included in complete, but they’re simple recipes that don’t insult your intelligence or leave you frazzled with too much detail.
Time after time, I’ve found it an infallible reference, filled with good basic recipes for things I really want to eat. Used copies are available from booksellers online if you want to see for yourself. If I could only take one cook book to a desert island, this one would be it.
