Dear Customers,
Remember, not too long ago, when women shared their favorite recipes with friends and family, often keeping them on 3×5” index cards in a small box made just for that purpose. Some people kept recipe files that were well organized, perhaps even inserting multi-colored tabs to separate the different types like casseroles, entrees or desserts. I know of one woman who carefully clipped possible favorites from cooking magazines and kept them in what amounted to a “picture” album. I guess it was faster than copying them all by hand!
I have even heard of some devious souls who, when asked for their “famous” recipe would carefully omit one or two ingredients ensuring the resultant creation would never quite live up to their own. Personally, I was always flattered when someone asked me for a recipe and would type it out in its entirety and hand it over. These days, with the internet at our disposal, its child’s play to find a recipe that will tickle your taste buds.
On one such request, I was asked by a local character (who shall remain nameless in this column) for my recipe for Pasta Fagioli. I had enjoyed my mother’s soup as a child and had carefully, over many years, combined several recipes to attain what I felt was just like hers, only a little better! Now, if you’re not familiar, pasta fagioli is simply macaroni and beans in a thin red sauce. It was a very common meal in Italy where my grandparents had grown up because it was simple, flavorful and very economical to make – particularly when feeding a large family.
I gradually discovered that the secret ingredient, the one that gave it all its succulent distinctive flavor, was Pecorino Romano cheese. It didn’t matter if you ground or grated it first or just tossed a hunk into the soup kettle and let it melt away, slowly. The end result was delicious, just like I remembered it.
I made it several times for family, friends and the occasional soup luncheon at the church which apparently was where this fellow had sampled it. I typed out the recipe carefully and indicated that there was some Costa’s Italian sausage in it and about 8 ounces of the Romano cheese. A couple of weeks later, I saw the same gentleman in the supermarket and asked him how “it had turned out!”
With obvious disdain, he informed me that he had found it rather bland! That didn’t sound like my dish, so I questioned him politely – “maybe you didn’t use enough Romano cheese?” To which he replied, and this is verbatim, “Oh, I didn’t use any. . . it was too expensive.”