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August 4, 2009
Sherri Meyer, Registered Dietitian
Growing up in an Italian household, we didn’t have much variety in our foods. All of our Sunday meals, and many of our weekday dinners, included “sauce”, meaning spaghetti & meatballs. This happened no matter the season, no matter the temperature. The only variation on our meals was the type of pasta we were served, which varied from cavatelli, rigatoni and spaghetti. If my father was not home for dinner (which was rare) we got crazy and had “spiral” (rotini) pasta. During the week we occasionally were more adventurous and indulged in meat (cooked to the point that it became a weapon of mass destruction) and potatoes. Plus, we always had salad, no matter what the meal.
Preparation of the “sauce” was a major ordeal in my house. Sundays after church my mother would dress in her “old” clothes and begin the daylong ordeal of sauce preparation. She would start by rolling the meatballs and preparing the braciola. There would be a gigantic saucepot with enough sauce to feed a family of 24 rather than 4. By nightfall the sauce would be finished and my mother would carefully store the sauce in containers to be used throughout the week. When the stored sauce was depleted, she would begin the ritual again.
While I cherish the sauce-making ritual and have fond memories of the process, it is one I do not engage in now that I have a family of my own. Sundays in my house are also for “special” meals, just not necessarily Italian meals. My husband and I use it as a day to cook together and prepare something we both enjoy. We obviously don’t want to spend the day in the kitchen - or should I say my toddler Oliver does not want to - so we try to keep it fresh and fairly simple. One of the plus sides of the summer is the amazing produce we can get from the Lynchburg Farmer’s Market. Saturday mornings are spent cruising through the stalls purchasing the fresh bounty of produce all the farmers have to offer. Oliver has grown accustomed to our ritual and hopefully his brother Oakley will too. Thanks to Saunders Produce we were able to prepare a peach salsa consisting of their fresh peaches, market tomatoes, jalapeño and onion. We paired this tasty salsa with halibut from the local fish market and tortillas soup I prepared from roasted peppers and fresh yellow tomatoes. We used what was “in season” and local to prepare a meal that was colorful, fresh, tasty and enjoyed by all (except Oliver, of course who decided he was “done” after a few bites of fish).
Despite not following the Sunday “sauce ritual” performed by mother, she did instill in me the importance of sitting together as a family and enjoying something we labored over. And occasionally, I’ll even buy a box of late summer tomatoes at the market and make a modified red sauce myself.
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