Family Roots Built on Tradition

Sundays hold a special meaning for almost everyone. For some, it’s the day they celebrate their religion. For others, it’s the last day of the week and a day of rest. For our family, it has always been a combination of both as well as our dedicated family day.

Every Sunday morning, my son and I have cooked together since he was 2 years old. Most of the time, we make sauce and meatballs using our own secret family recipe, and sometimes we change it up. We cook lighter in the summer, and experiment year-round based upon what we feel like cooking, but the core of our cooking will always be our Sunday sauce (not gravy).

We always make extra meatballs and have brought them to many friends and neighbors in our community. We have even dropped some off to the nuns when they lived next to the church. Some of my favorite meals I have ever cooked have been right beside my son, where I learn about what’s going on in his life while we share a lot of laughs.

Tradition is something that I hold dear to my heart. It is very important to preserve family traditions. They root us to our heritage and our core, so that wherever the world takes us, our strong roots will always bring us home.

Maria and Bubs’ Fresh Pasta

People are always intimidated by making fresh pasta, and I cannot stress enough how easy it is. Once you make fresh pasta and get the hang of it, you will be able to whip it up without even looking at a recipe. This is one I found years ago that has been modified through the years; this is my tried-and-true recipe.

Ingredients:

• 3 cups all-purpose flour. Any all-purpose flour will yield silky pasta if you follow this recipe.

• 4 whole eggs

• Two good splashes of great olive oil. I love Oliva; it’s a Spanish olive oil, organic and biodynamic. You can really feel the difference in quality. I also use a variety of olive oils that I get shipped directly from Italy that I learned about during my travels there.

• A healthy pinch of Maldon sea salt. A local chef told me once to “remain faithful to your salt,” meaning whatever salt you prefer to use, stay true to it. I love Maldon sea salt. Most people use it for a finishing salt, but I use it for most everything. If I’m not using that, I’m using kosher or Himalayan pink salt.

• Whatever spices you like! Sometimes I add fresh cracked black pepper, garlic seasoning, and even pizza seasoning. I always love to flavor my pasta.

Instructions:

• Attach the dough hook attachment on your mixer, or you can do it old-school style and make a well in the middle of your flour. Crack your eggs inside, then add your spices. Use a fork and start incorporating all of the flour. How ever you choose to mix it, once it’s incorporated, start adding cold water, enough until you have a nice ball of dough.

• Next, you want to knead the dough. This is the most important step where you get the actual consistency of the pasta. You’re actually stretching the gluten at this stage, so if you want silky pasta, get ready to work.

• To knead the dough, flour a surface and stretch out the dough using the palm of your hand. Stretch it as far as it can go and then stretch it with the other hand. Fold the dough over and repeat. You’re going to knead for at least 10 minutes. If you’re looking for a good arm workout, this is it.

• Wrap the dough in plastic wrap when you’re done. You will know when you are done because the dough will start to get silky and soft. Let the dough rest for at least an hour, or up to several hours. Then you can roll it with a rolling pin and cut it into whatever shape you want.

• I love my KitchenAid pasta roll attachments. I utilize the flat one, and then I flour those flat pieces of pasta and run them through the thin spaghetti attachment. I promise you it’s not cheating.

• For a simple marinara sauce, use any type of meat you like, as long as it has a nice bone in it. Try a thick veal chop. Then sauté that bone in some great olive oil, add chopped onion, garlic and basil to flavor the oil. Then add your favorite can of whole tomatoes, a little bit of salt and pepper, and let it simmer.

Enjoy your Sunday dinner! Mangia!

Photograph courtesy of Maria O'Donnell