Meat loaf is one of those dishes that can take on so much, like vegetables, leftover mashed potatoes, the end of a bottle of wine from the weekend, a bit of stale bread.
Some soups demand a fireside, others require a summer afternoon. This soup defies seasons, and tastes just as delicious in the spring as in the winter. Perfect for dipping into with a hunk of brown bread or satisfying alone. The addition of whole peas and pecorino at the end makes for a satisfying sweet/salty finish. Plus, even Daniel made it through half a bowl before realizing Split Peas are still peas.
The fresh pasta can be made 24 hours ahead and air dried. The lasagne can be assembled a few hours ahead, but please don’t refrigerate it as it tends to dry out.
The Parmesan cheese and bread crumb crust and topping of this soufflé will be browner and crunchier when it is prepared in a gratin dish, making it easier to serve at the table. It can also be made in a conventional soufflé dish. Leftover soufflé will reinflate when reheated in a 350-degree oven.
You should bake this a couple of days in advance and let it stale at room temperature.
When I have no vegetables on hand, I make this soup, which requires only onions and leftover bread. Grated Gruyère, one of my mother’s favorite additions to the soup, is a great flavor enhancer.
You can vary the amount of water in this recipe in accordance with whether you want a proper soup or a more stewlike consistency.
The first time I ate codette was in 1994, at Ristorante Plistia, in the National Park of Abruzzo, during a trip to Italy with my husband and my parents. The word codette translates to “little tails,” but when the restaurant’s proprietor, Cicitto Decina, brought a platter of these emerald green beauties to our table, we thought the plate was piled with steamed green beans! What a delicious surprise when we tasted the tender-chewy strands of spinach pasta freshly made by Cicitto’s wife, Laura del Principe, and demurely dressed with a sauce comprised of local sausages and peas. From that moment, Plistia became my favorite restaurant. It still is.
When raising three rowdy boys, Daisy Kushino often made this classic Japanese American dish: it was a cinch to make and an easy dish to feed them while they were sitting in a highchair or at a picnic. Mochiko chicken is probably adapted from tatsuta age, Japanese marinated fried chicken, and is very versatile: serve small pieces as finger food or cut the chicken into bigger pieces for a main course. Flour made from Japanese sweet rice (which is similar to glutinous rice) is called mochiko flour or sweet rice flour and can be found in the Asian aisle of most supermarkets. Look for Koda Farms Blue Star Brand which comes in a white box.