Our Spaghetti Sauce

Every family has their standard spaghetti sauce recipe, and this is ours. It’s hearty meat sauce that is rich in flavors and perfect for a spaghetti dinner. The recipe is based on one from my mother-in-law Irene, lightened a bit by using less olive oil.*

We vary the meat combo depending on what we have in the freezer or can find at the market, but try when we can to use at least one other meat besides beef, usually pork. The quantities of meat are non-exact since that’s the way you find them at the market, but overall its about 2 lbs.
Of course, you could make the sauce by using ground turkey or chicken, but then it wouldn’t be our sauce now, would it? It would be yours.

Our Spaghetti Sauce

Put a the teapot filled with fresh water. Open one large 1 lb 13oz can of Italian tomatoes and buzz them on the food processor with a large 1 lb 13 oz can of tomato puree. (Alternatively, just open 2 cans of crushed tomatoes).

Heat 1/4 cup olive oil in a large saucepan on high heat. Add 8-10 minced garlic cloves and 1 tsp fennel seeds and cook, stirring, till they begin to turn color. Immediately add 1 lb lean ground beef, 1/2 to 1 lb ground pork or Italian sausage (removed from casings) and 1/2 to 1 lbs ground veal, and cook, stirring frequently.

While the meat is cooking, put two cubes of beef bouillon into a large pyrex measuring cup and add 2 cups boiling water, stirring to dissolve the cubes.

Just when the meat loses its redness, stir in 3 tbsp flour and the bouillon. Allow to thicken about a minute. Add the tomatoes and stir. (To stretch the sauce further, add a can of tomato paste and a can of water). Add spices – 1 tbsp salt, 1 tbsp sugar, ground black pepper +/- crushed chili pepper to taste, 1 tsp dried oregano (or more to taste), 1 tsp dried basil or 1/4 cup fresh pesto (we almost always use the pesto since we usually have some homemade in the freezer) and 1 cup finely chopped parsley.

Bring the sauce to a boil and simmer for at least an hour.

This recipe makes enough for 2 lbs of spaghetti and tastes best the second day. It freezes well.

For leftovers, dice eggplant and salt it. Toss in oil and garlic and lightly brown. Toss with leftover spaghetti. Spread 1/2 cup mozarella and sprinkle with Parmesan and bake 1/2 hour.
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*The original recipe called for 1/2 cup olive oil. Irene tells me her Italian friend told her you have to use a lot of oil in your spaghetti sauce, and indeed recipes for Neopolitan Tomato Sauce call for 1/2 cup oil. One of these days I’ll make it that way and see if it makes a difference. If any of my Italian readers want to comment, feel free.

Cycling Home from Siberia

Rob Lilwall rode from Siberia to London on a bicycle. That’s about (are you ready?) 30,000 miles, if you include a few little detours to places like Australia, Pap New Guinea, Tibet and Iran. The trip took over three years.

You can get a taste for the trip on Rob’s Website. Rob has also written a book about his experiences (only available right now in the UK and online), and National Geographic aired a 6 part series about the trip on their Australian Adventure Channel.

Rob stopped in at Mr TBTAM’s school today and gave what I hear was an incredibly fascinating and motivational talk to the kids. Afterwards, Mr TBTAM took Rob and his wife for a bike ride along the West Side Greenway, which for Rob, I suppose, was sort of like riding through the mountains of Tibet, but different.

Klezmer Jazz at Mehanata Bulgaria

Thanks to our friend Paulie for inviting us to hear him play Klezmer Jazz at Mehanata Bulgarian Bar along with his classmates and teachers from SUNY Purchase. It was a rousing night of music, food and drink. Not to mention meeting a few genuine Bulgarians in the crowd, who told me the music was just like what they listened to at home.

Mehanata Bulgaria is a great place to go to listen and dance to gypsy music, share a hookah and eat Bulgarian food. We all shared a plate of sausages with fried potatoes, grape leaves, cucumber salad and a red pepper puree that was delish. And it cost only $8.99!

Oh, and in case you’re wondering – Paulie is the cool one playing bass.

When Hair Loss Strikes…

a doctor is a girl’s best friend, according to a recent article in The NY Times.

The author had what sounds like a case of tellugen effluvium, a temporary loss of hair that occurs when a large number of hair follicles decide to cycle together, usually as a result of stress or sudden hormonal shifts (like giving birth). Fortunately for her, the follicles all cycle back in eventually.

She then goes on to discuss on of the more frustrating causes of hair loss in women – androgenetic alopecia, or male pattern baldness.

I see androgenetic alopecia not infrequently in women who came convinced that they have a treatable hormonal problem. Unfortunately, I’ve yet to find any hormonal abnormalities in these women other than menopause and perimenopause. I have had limited success using hormone replacement for the problem, although I do offer it as a trial. I generally offer Minoxidil, but patients seem to have trouble following through on its use. I tend to avoid Propecia, a drug use in male baldness, since we have limited experience using it in women.

Some of my patients with androgenetic alopecia have had success stemming further hair loss with Spironolactone, a diuretic anti-hypertensive that has the added effect of blocking the testosterone receptor in the skin.  It’s not FDA approved for this indication, but we’ve been using spironolactone for years to treat hirutism, as well as for its diuretic effects on pre-menstrual bloating. Spironolactone can cause birth defects in male fetuses, so I never prescribe sprironolactone without concomitant hormonal contraception in women in their reproductive years.

Of course, there are other causes of hair loss – these are just the two most common ones. If you think you losing your hair, see your doctor. Sometimes hair loss can be a symptom of an underlying medical condition such as thyroid disease, although in my experience thyroid problems are more often diagnosed on routine screens before hair loss ever becomes a problem. Rarely, a testosterone-secreting adrenal or ovarian tumor can present with hair loss, though usually this is accompanied by other signs of androgen excess.

Other causes of hair loss are alopecia areata, (thought to be an autoimmune disorder), medications (chemotherapy of course being the worst offender), fungal infections, hair processing chemicals and treatments, and other rarer causes.

Finally, don’t forget that hair loss can be one of the side effects of the much touted testosterone therapy in women.

Loyalties

Mabel: I hate half-hearted friends. Loyalty comes before everything.
Margaret:Ye-es; but loyalties cut up against each other sometimes, you know.

That’s the essence of Loyalties, a play currently running in an unlikely venue – the back room of a restaurant in Hunter’s Point, Long Island City. Think Andy Rooney and Judy Garland saying “Let’s put on a show!” – then give them an incredible script, a talented director and a wonderful group of seasoned equity and young non-equity actors and you’ve got a hidden gem of a production just two subway stops off Broadway.

The play itself is a British drawing room drama by John Galsworthy, the author of the Fosythe Saga. Think Noel Coward, but from the inside. At the play’s outset, money is discovered stolen from a room at a country manor during a weekend when the house is filled with guests. The crime’s victim happens to be the only Jew in the group and not entirely a likable character, and the accused a war hero, boyhood chum and all around good ‘old boy. Loyalties harden, soften and shift as evidence begins to mount against the accused and his friends and young wife are forced to decide where they stand.

Loyalties is presented by the Unity Stage Company and directed by Sofia Landon Geier, who has created a very sophisticated production on a shoestring. This is theater at it’s best – top-notch actors performing real drama without expensive sets, corporate backers or rehashed movie scripts. Congrats to Sofia for unearthing this little known gem of a play, which apparently played to smash reviews when it opened in 1922. It’s themes of racism, classism and group loyalties are, sadly, ever-relevant and particularly timely.
If you’ve never been to Hunter’s Point, seeing Loyalties is a chance to visit this hip gentrified Queens neighborhood. The 7 Train drops you just three blocks from the theater, and Vernon Boulevard is home to an increasing number of wonderful restaurants, including Blend, a Latin Fusion restaurant, Bella Via, a wonderful Italian place that I hear has fabulous brick oven pizza, and El Ay Si, which serves global “comfort food”. Every one of these restaurants was packed the night we went to see Loyalties, and my only regret of the night was that we had already eaten dinner at home.
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Loyalties is running till Jan 30 at the Parlor at Cassino Restaurant, 47-18 Vernon Blvd in Long Island City. For reservations, call 718-361-5858 or go online at Unity Stage.org.
Read more about the play and the cast in the Woodside Herald.

Mirena House Parties

Bayer Pharmaceuticals, the maker of the Mirena IUD, has teamed up with the Mommy marketing site “Mom Central” to sponsor house parties to sell women the Mirena IUD.

According to a warning letter sent to Bayer by the FDA about the worded content of the events –

The Mirena program is a live presentation designed for a consumer audience of “busy moms.” The program is presented in a consumer’s home or other private setting (e.g. private restaurant party) by a representative from Mom Central (a social networking internet site) and a nurse practitioner (Ms. Barb Dehn). The Mirena program submitted to FDA also references a presentation given by a fashion stylist (Ms. Angela Hastings) that immediately follows Ms. Dehn’s presentation regarding the use of Mirena. The script of Ms. Hastings’ presentation regarding fashion tips was not submitted to FDA.

The events start with an intro by a Mom Central rep –

This party was brought to you by Mom Central in partnership with Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals’ Mirena which may help couples keep life simple!”…Barb Dehn is a practicing Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner, award-winning author and nationally recognized health expert from San Francisco. Barb is going to kick things off with a discussion about romance and how to find simple ways to reconnect with our partners.”

Nurse Barb gets the group talking about intimacy by asking icebreaking questions that include the following –

“If you didn’t have to worry about contraception, do you think you would be more likely to be intimate with your partner?”

“Do you think if you didn’t have to worry about taking your birth control everyday, it would help you be more intimate?”

Then, this scripted segway –

“So you mentioned that convenience and reliability are among the most important benefits of your birth control method. One strategy that I recommend for busy couples is choosing a birth control method that allows for spontaneous intimacy and which you don’t have to think about every day, such as the intrauterine contraceptive Mirena®.”

The FDA letter goes on to cite the scripted Mirena info for failing to disclose all the relevant risks of Mirena.

Here’s how one Mommy blogger describes the Mirena party she hosted last year-

Mom Central had found me through this blog and asked me if I would be interested in hosting an event sponsored by Mirena. As I welcome any opportunity to sit down with some girlfriends with some free food and drink, I was happy to accept….We had an amazing evening, talking about sex, fashion, and living a simpler life. I realized that we don’t actually spend a lot of time talking about sex and relationships. We laughed a lot but also went home with some great tips

Using moms to sell pharmaceutucals? Bayer has gone too far.

Baked Kafta with Potato (Kafta bi Seniyah)

This is yet another wonderful dish from May Bsiu’s cookbook The Arab Table: Recipes and Culinary Traditions.It’s sort of a Middle Eastern version of lasagna using potatoes instead of pasta. Kafta (also spelled Kofta) are the ubiquitous Middle Eastern meatball, made with lamb or beef and served in a variety of ways.

I’ve adapted Bsisu’s recipe by substituting canned for fresh tomatoes and olive for vegetable oil. We served ours with a side of chickpea salad (from the same cookbook), but Bsisu recommends a simple green salad and flatbread.

Kafta

2 pounds ground beef or lamb (we used beef)
1 cup finely chopped parsely
1 pound onions, minced
1 tbsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/4 tsp ground cardamom
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl, using you hands, until thoroughly mixed and smooth. Shape into flattened balls and refigerate while preparing the rest of the dish.

Kafta with Potatoes

2 – 14.5 oz cans diced tomatoes with juice
1/4 cup tomato paste
1/2 cup water
3 tbsp olive oil
4 lbs Yukon Gold potatoes, sliced 1/2 inch thick
1/2 pound onions, thinly sliced
5 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
salt and pepper to taste
Kafta (recipe above)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit.

Drain the tomatoes, saving the juice. If necessary, add water to equal 1/2 cup total juice.

Heat 2 tbsp olive oil in a large saute pan on high heat. Add potatoes and saute, turning halfway, till lightly browned.

Transfer to paper towel to drain.

Add remaining oil to skillet and heat. Add onions and saute till soft and translucent, about 5 minutes. Add garlic and saute another 1-2 minutes, being careful not to burn the garlic.

Dissolve the tomato paste in the saved tomato juice and pour it over the cooked onions. Season with salt and pepper and cook for 15 minutes until the onions have melted slightly into the sauce.

Meanwhile, spread the Kafta in a 9×12 inch baking dish. Arrange the potatoes atop, overlapping if necessary. Layer the tomatoes atop the potatoes, then spread the onion mixture evenly over the tomatoes. Bake until the tomato sauce is thickened, the meat is deep brown and potatoes are tender, about 1 hour.

Let sit 10 minutes before serving. To serve, cut into squares, spooning some of the sauce directly over each square.

Kitchen Carabiners (and a Giveaway!)

Although I may be stressed, I’m not climbing the walls just yet.

But I needed something to keep my measuring cups hanging together without handcuffing them to each other. I hate those sets that force you to hold all four cups at once when all you want is the 1/4 cup measurer. I also hate using precious drawer space to store something that I’d prefer at easy reach.

When I saw these carabiner-like quick release keychains at the counter in my local hardware store, I knew I’d hit on the solution.

These little darlings are cheap and come in various sizes and colors, making them both attractive and useful for hanging almost anything together. The quick release spring connector takes a split second to press down, allowing me to remove just the measuring cup or tool I need. Sometimes when I’m doing a lot of cooking, I just take all 4 cups out and use them, then wash them and hang them back together with the carabiner when I am done.

Of course, these carabiners are not meant for climbing – I’d say quick release is not exactly a good idea when you’re hanging from a large rock in the sky.

Where to buy them

I have no idea who makes the carabiners I bought, so I looked on the web to see where else one might buy them. It seems they are the penultimate “Made in China” item, mostly given away as promotional items or sold in bulk. I did find a one pack of 6 on Amazon for $9.95 and another for $8.99, but don’t know if they are the exact same ones that I bought. I figure it’s only a matter of time before some smart type will figure out how to sell them at some fancy website or kitchen store for $10 apiece. In the meantime…

It’s a Kitchen Carabiner Giveaway!

I bought a few extra carabiners at the hardware store and will give them away to one lucky winner via a random drawing. To enter, just post a comment to this post before the drawing on February 1st. Tweet, link to or Facebook this giveaway and you get an extra entry (just post a second comment telling me you did so with the link.) Make sure you leave either a link to your blog or some other way for me to contact you if you win.

Consultation Codes – Overused?

A study published in this week’s Archives of Internal Medicine looked at so-called errors made in consultation code billing by specialists seeing patients at the request of a primary care practice in suburban Chicago. The methodology? Comparing the primary care office referral form with the specialist’s bill.
The author concludes that specialists are greatly overusing consultation codes in situations where a new patient visit would be more appropriate, to the tune of over half a billion dollars a year in Medicare payments, and suggests that it is time to reconsider the use of these codes. (Medicare, of course, has already come to the same conclusion, and beginning January 1 of this year, is no longer paying for consultation codes.)

There may be misuse of consultation codes going on, but this study does not necessarily prove that. The methodology does not include medical record review, the standard by which coding choices are verified or refuted, and relies entirely on the referring physician’s determination of what the specialist should be billing.

How does CPT define a consultation? It says simply this –

“A consultation is a type of service provided by a physician whose opinion or advice regarding evaluation and/or management of a specific problem is requested by another physician or appropriate source.”

Pretty vague, right? It is this vagueness that has allowed for the widespread use of consultation codes. Notice I said “widespread” and not “overuse”. One could argue that CPT’s is deliberately vague so as to allow specialist physicans to code consultations in a variety of clinical scenarios, which is in fact what they do. This is not necessarily “erroneous billing”. The term “overuse” implies fraud, and places blame at the foot of the specialist for our healthcare costs.

Medicare clearly does not want to pay for consultations anymore. We get that. But to imply that this is because doctors are overusing consultation codes or billing erroneously is to place blame on docs, rather than just admit that Medicare is looking for ways to shift payments towards primary care.

There is a genuine argument that the differential in specialist fees, based on the widespread use of consultation codes, is one of the forces driving docs into specialty care instead of primary care and that changing to payment schedule to give more dollars to primary care may begin to remedy the situation. The study’s author states this argument nicely –

Higher payment for consultation codes, while not adding a significant percentage to the overall Medicare budget, sends a signal that primary care cognitive services are not valued equally with such services provided by other specialties. At a time when we want to encourage new physicians to consider primary care and support current practitioners, this differential sends adissonant message. Furthermore, as patients are increasingly responsible for out-of-pocket payments, it is difficult to explain to them why consultant physicians are paid so much more than their primary care physicians for the same or less time spent with them.

There is however, also a counter-argument that specialists incur additional years and costs of training that should be compensated in some way. It’s a complex issue without a simple answer, and both sides have valid points of view.

I happen to agree that we need to begin to create incentives for docs to enter and stay in primary care. However, the consequences of potentially losing subspeciality care, particularly in underserved areas, must be factored into any sudden major shifts in compensation.

I’ve said before that the good and bad news about healthcare is that the medical profession, in general, will follow the money, and that when financial incentives are aligned with what is right for patients, we all win. In realigning incentives, however, we must avoid using the blame brush to paint subspecialists as the bad guys in a system that has, until now, encouraged their practice by compensating them at higher rates than primary care.
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I just want to point out that I called this one when I predicted that the single health care reform item that would come this year would be that primary care would win a bigger piece of the pie at the expense of specialists.

It’s Medblog Awards Season!

Nominations are now being accepted at Medgaget Blog for the 2009 Medical Blog Awards.

Head on over to nominate your favorite blogs in the following categories-

  • Best Medical Weblog
  • Best New Medical Weblog (established in 2009)
  • Best Literary Medical Weblog
  • Best Clinical Sciences Weblog
  • Best Health Policies/Ethics Weblog
  • Best Medical Technologies/Informatics Weblog
  • Best Patient’s Blog

Best part about the awards? Discovering new blogs. I’ve already found four blogs I hadn’t heard of before in the nomination comments.

Of course, I’m still waiting for a Medical/Food Blog category. Maybe next year…

My Big Fat American Pastitsio

mybigfatpastistio

We love serving Pastitsio, also known as Greek Lasagna, to our friends and family. Made with pasta, meat sauce and bechamel, and flavored with nutmeg and cinnamon, pastitsio somehow seems more special than Italian Lasagna, and never fails to get raves from dinner guests.

Our Pastitsio is based on an old artery-clogging recipe from Jeff Smith’s cookbook The Frugal Gourmet Cooks Three Ancient Cuisines, which in turn comes from a Greek Orthodox Church cookbook called Greek Cooking in an American Kitchen. The original recipe calls for 9 eggs, 16 tbsp of butter and not a drop of olive oil! I’ve enlightened it quite a bit, although it is still quite a rich dish.

Something tells me this is not the original Greek version of Pastitsio – after all, the Mediterranean Diet is supposed to be healthy, right? I figure this Americanized version evolved when Greek immigrant housewives, unable to find (or afford) olive oil at the local A&P, turned to butter – and the rest is history.

But then, I asked the Greeks who run our local Pizza joint how they make their pastitsio at home. (These guys are the real thing, complete with accents.) “Butter” was their unequivocal answer. “We use butter for baking, and olive oil in our salads. Olive oil in Pastitsio would not taste right.” Our nurse manager, Maria, who is also Greek, concurs. “They do make it in Greece with olive oil, but it’s an entirely different dish. My kids don’t like it.” The pastitsio her kids love is made with two sticks of butter, making me wonder if her mother knew the ladies who wrote that church cookbook up there…

I did find a healthier Pastitsio recipe in John Kaldes’ cookbook Made in Greece. (Faithful readers may recall John from our little foray to the fish market in Newark…) John’s recipe uses no butter, not even in the bechamel, and calls for two different Greek cheeses. A bechamel made with olive oil – that’s got to be the authentic recipe.

I think I am going to make John’s Pastitsio next time and see how it stands up to the American version. I’ll let you know how it turns out. Better yet, John, how about a little Pastitsio Throw Down? (Update – The Throwdown is a go! Probably sometime early spring. Stay tuned…)

ARTERY CLOGGING, CROWD PLEASING, BIG, FAT AMERICAN PASTISTIO

Even I’m not going to use two sticks of butter in one recipe, so I’ve cut back considerably on that as well as the eggs. I also make a larger quantity of sauce than the original recipe, and serve it atop, since the Pastitsio can be a bit dry otherwise. I do what Jeff Smith suggests, and line my ziti up in rows so it looks pretty when sliced. Serve with a big side of green salad.

Meat Mixture
2 tbsp olive oil
1 large peeled and finely chopped onion
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 pounds lean ground beef
2 large can peeled tomatoes, pulsed on processor (or used chopped tomatoes)
Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp cloves

Macaroni
4 qt water
salt
1 lb ziti
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 tbsp butter, melted
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Bechamel
4 tbsp butter
4 tbsp flour
2 cups warm milk
2 eggs, beaten lightly
2 tbsp dry sherry
1/2 tsp freshly ground nutmeg
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
Salt and pepper to taste

Heat olive oil in a large skillet. Saute onion and garlic till golden. Add beef and cook till it just loses its red color, then add the remaining meat mixture ingredients and simmer, uncovered, for 30-45 minutes. It should be thick. Set aside.

Meanwhile, bring the water to a boil in a large stockpot. Add salt and ziti and cook, uncovered about 7-8 minutes. Drain and place in a large bowl. Add melted butter and beaten eggs and grated cheeses. Put half this mixture into the bottom of a greased 9x9x2 inch baking pan and top with about 2/3 of the meat mixture. (You’ll reserve the rest of the meat mixture, keeping it warm to serve atop the final dish). Cover the meat with the remaining half of the pasta.

Prepare the white sauce by melting butter in a large saucepan. Stir in flour and cook for a minute. Gradually add the heated milk, stirring constantly, and cook till thickened and smooth. Beat the eggs in a separate bowl, then stir in 1/2 cup of the bechamel. Blend and stir the egg/sauce mixture back into the bechamel in the saucepan and continue to stir over low heat til thickened. Add remaining ingredients to the sauce.

Pour the sauce over the ziti and bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 25-30 minutes, or until the top is delicately browned. Let sit for at least 10 minutes. Serve with a bit of sauce atop each serving.

MYBIGFAT PASTISTIO 2

Medical Blog Discoveries

Like Christopher Columbus or Magellan, I travel across the uncharted waters of the web in search of one thing or another, and discover new worlds I never knew existed. Here are a few medical blogs I discovered in my travels –

Medical moments in 55 Words – Each post is 55 words. Twitter meets Haiku meets Medicine. I like it!

Academic OB/Gyn – A kindred spirit in Hawaii. With a podcast!

Medical Lessons – Heme/Onc, Journalist, breast cancer survivor. Not to mention, fellow New Yorker, fellow Cornell faculty member and our kids were in pre-school together. Oh yeah, and she’s written for Huffington. Not that I’m jealous or anything….

Mainstream Media Health Blogs I now follow – Combining the best of both our worlds.

See you around the blogosphere!


(Image of Christopher Columbus discovering Hispaniola from US Library of Congress, via Wikipedia, Used with permission.)

Grand Rounds Comes Home Again

Nick Genes hosts the 327th edition of Grand Rounds at his blog Blogborygmi. Grand Rounds is a weekly round up of the best of the medical blogosphere, hosted by a rotating group of volunteer medical bloggers.

Nick founded Grand Rounds at his blog in Sept 2004 (has it really been that long?), and remains dedicated to keeping its original intent, which is to showcase excellent writing from independent voices in the medical field.

Head on over for some great reading!

The Secret of Minestra Maritata

Whatever it is you’ve been led to believe about Italian Wedding Soup is most certainly wrong.

The idea that this soup is served at Italian weddings is a misconception that has penetrated the psyche of an American public yearning for a lost European past, clinging to an imagined memory of nuptual celebrations – families, friends, bride and groom sharing a broth filled with meat, vegetables and pasta, just as their parents and grandparents had done for generations before in the small towns and villages of Italy.

The thing is, it never happened. None of it.

To understand, you must first learn two Italian words. Two words that name a soup and unlock a secret – “Minestra Maritata”. Translated into English, these words simply mean ‘Married Soup”.

Not Wedding Soup. Married Soup. You see it now, don’t you? How the mistranslation of one simple word can create a nationwide collective false memory.

But why this name, Minestra Maritata? What marriage does it celebrate, if not that of two people in love?

That is the secret of Minestra Maritata, my friend, and to learn it, you must journey to the past. A past when the Cosa Nostra ruled Sicily, families warred for control of their own piece of the American Dream and one chosen family held the secret of a very special soup. (I warn you, the video you are about to see is shocking. You may want to have small children and naive cooks leave the room…)

Don Corleone tells Michael the Secret of the Soup
Now that you know it’s Secret, there’s only one more thing you need to know about Minstra Maritata.
It’s delicious.
Minestra Maritata (Italian Wedding Soup)
There are many versions of this wonderful soup (see below for just a few I found). I modified Ina Gartens recipe just a tad.
Meatballs:
3/4 pound ground chicken
1/2 pound ground turkey
2/3 cup fresh homemade breadcrumbs
2 teaspoons minced garlic (2 cloves)
3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese, plus extra for serving
3 tablespoons milk
1 large egg, lightly beaten
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
Soup:
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large minced onion
3 carrots, 1/4 inch dice
2 stalks celery, 1/4 inch dice
10 cups chicken stock
1/2 cup white wine
1 cup small tube pasta
1/4 cup minced fresh dill
12 ounces baby spinach, washed and trimmed

Salt and pepper to tastePreheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Place the ground chicken and turkey, bread crumbs, garlic, parsley, Parmesan, milk, egg, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper in a bowl and combine. Using a mini scooper, drop meatballs onto a sheet pan lined with parchment paper. Bake for 20 minutes, until cooked through and lightly browned. Set aside. (Try not to eat too many while the soup is cooking.)

In the meantime, heat the olive oil over medium-low heat in a large heavy-bottomed soup pot. Add the onion, carrots, and celery and saute until softened. Add the chicken broth and wine and bring to a boil. Add the pasta and cook until the pasta is tender. Add the fresh dill and then the meatballs to the soup and simmer for 1 minute. Season with salt and pepper. Stir in the fresh spinach and cook for 1 minute, until the spinach is just wilted. Ladle into soup bowls. Serve with extra grated Parmesan for sprinkling on top.
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Everyone makes Italian Wedding Soup!

New Year’s Eve Dinner, a New Blog Feature and a Resolution

With this post, I’ll be starting a new TBTAM feature – menus for entertaining. I realized that I often find myself asking MR TBTAM “What was that such-and-such we served that time when so-and-so came over for dinner?” I decided I needed a record of menus we’ve served, and where else would I keep it but here on the blog? I’ll put a widget on the sidebar so you can access menus when you’re looking for inspiration.

Goat Cheese, Caviar and Dill Flatbread

What better way is there to welcome the New Year than dinner with good friends? The kids being home from college for the holidays gave the gathering an even more than usual specialness.

We started dinner late (about 8:30 pm), and served in formal courses so the meal stretched out till almost midnight. Will Shortz’s fabulous new game Tribond provided entertainment between dinner and dessert. (My kids love Tribond so much they even play it with their friends when we grownups aren’t around.) Then it was up to the roof to join the joyful city noise and bask in the distant reflected glow from the fireworks in Central Park.

This year’s meal was truly a group effort. Friends Paula, Linda and Andy supplied appetizers and dessert, and in a family first, my daughter Emily made both the soup and the salad, and she did a fabulous job. I have to admit, though, sharing the kitchen with her in the afternoon pre-party really threw off my timing – I hadn’t realized how much of a cooking rhythm Mr TBTAM and I have developed in all these years of throwing dinner parties.

It may have been because she pretty much took over the stovetop and counters. Or that I can’t order her around the way I can my husband. Whatever it was, at a certain point I found myself almost paralyzed and unable to continue until I had the kitchen back again. (Irene, now I understand how you feel when we kids storm your kitchen.) So I spent some time focusing on setting a gorgeous table, a task I usually leave to the kids at the last minute. It was really fun to play around with the place settings, new tablecloth and placemats, and see how pretty it turned out!

As a result of all my futzing, however, Mr TBTAM and I hadn’t even started the chicken by the time the guests arrived, leaving me feeling almost explosively stressed. Believe me, there was no cause for stress other than my own perfectionism – these were dear friends, and the only person I was impressing was myself. Why I couldn’t just relax and see it as a joyful experience is a topic my readers can feel free to weight in on, but I’m sure there is something Freud could say about it.

Fortunately, Andy and Paula helped us in the kitchen, and soon enough everyone was happily downing wine and appetizers, the chicken was simmering and I was able to relax and enjoy the wonderful company of my friends and family.

New Year’s Resolution #1 – Learn to chill. Happy New Year to all!

A New Years Eve Dinner Party for 12

Appetizers
Two Flatbreads made using this dough recipe – one recipe makes two sheet pan-sized flatbreads
– Goat cheese, dill and caviar (Serve with a dollop of sour cream or creme fraiche – I forgot to)
– Shredded Fontina, Parmesan and Pesto
Homemade Bulgarian grapeleaves, olives and Greek cheese (thanks, Paula!)

First Course
Mixed greens with choice of balsamic-honey vinaigrette (recipe will follow) or lemon vinaigrette

Butternut Squash Soup with Fried Sage Leaves

Second Course
Butternut Squash Soup with Fried Sage Leaves – a TBTAM favorite.

Main Course
Tarragon Chicken Fricassee – (Double recipe) Fabulously easy and delicious. From Epicurious.
Thyme-Roasted Carrots – (Double recipe) My new favorite carrot recipe. I’ll do a blog post soon with photos on this one.
Lightly Buttered Egg Noodles (One large bag)

Tarragon Chicken Fricassee

Desserts
Brownies and Chocolate Ruggelah with Vanilla Ice Cream (Thanks, Linda!)
Turkish Delight (Thanks, Paula!)
Grapes (Thanks Andy!)

Beverages
White Wine
Sparkling Cider
Seltzer
Iced Tap Water for the table