Sunday Dinner. What a great tradition. It was usually a big dinner day for us when we were kids growing up – especially if Pop was home from the firehouse. It still amazes me how we all fit in that dining room around that table. It wasn’t the multi-generational Italian Sunday Dinners of Victor’s youth, however.
Ours were pretty much confined to our immediate family. Once in awhile it would include our great-aunts – or us at their home. His was the open door, everyone and their brother showed up. The Italians definitely ate more.
So it’s really no surprise that if Victor is cooking, Sunday Dinner takes on that Italian abundance.
Today’s feast started with homemade pasta. And homemade meatballs. And homemade sauce.
Pasta-making is one thing he really has down to a gastronomic science. He bought me the pasta maker years ago and I think I may have used it twice. He is the pasta king. He does it so well and so fast, there is just no reason for me to learn it. I concede to the master!
I had a veal, beef, pork combo that I planned to make into a meatloaf. Victor used it to make his meatballs.
Yum.
As I’ve said before on numerous other pasta dinners, there is no recipe for the sauce. It just is. It’s very consistent, yet it can vary depending upon the meats used. It’s always wonderful.
I know that’s difficult for some folks to understand – they need a recipe with step-by-step instructions and exact measurements of every ingredient. But that’s just not how it’s done.
My contribution to dinner tonight was a loaf of bread.
I’ve been making this bread for such a long time now, I have it memorized.
- 5 1/2 cups flour
- 1/2 cup rye flour
- 1/2 cup buckwheat flour
- 1 1/2 tbsp yeast
- 1 1/2 tbsp salt
- 3 cups water
Mix all ingredients, cover, and let rise three hours. At this point you can punch it down and refrigerate.
When ready to bake bread, cut off 1/3 of the dough and form into a loaf or ball. Place on cornmeal-sprinkled baking sheet or bread peel. Let rise 30 minutes. Cut deep slits into dough with very sharp knife.
Preheat oven to 450° with pizza stone on middle rack and rimmed sheet pan on bottom rack.
Slide dough onto hot pizza stone and immediately add 1 cup of hot water to sheet pan.
Quickly close oven and bake for 25 to 30 minutes.
The other nice thing about Sunday Dinner is we generally eat early. That means we get to have dessert early – and there’s plenty of Victor’s pound cake left from yesterday.
I ♥ Sunday Dinner