Portuesi Family Recipes

I grew up in the Detroit area, in an Italian-American household. My father had a taste for strange Italian foods (he would dig up my neighbor's dandelion plants for salad) and my mother would rotate through her stalwart repertoire of recipes to bring our family dinner every evening.

Most of the memories I have of these dinners are not good ones. For instance, my mother always overcooked the round steak recipe below, producing something that required a saw to cut, and a few years worth of chewing to digest. Nevertheless, a few of these recipes have endured, and become fond favorites for myself as well as my brothers and sisters.

The following selection of recipes represents just a sampling of those halcyon days of my youth. Unfortunately, as both of my parents are no longer here with us, most of the other recipes have been lost.

Table of Contents

• Dad's Tomato Salad
• Dad's Fried Eggplant
• Dad's Stuffed Artichokes
• Mom's Baked Potatoes
• Mom's Round Steak
• Mom's Spaghetti Sauce
• Mom's Italian Meatballs

Dad's Tomato Salad

Ingredients

Procedure

1. Cut tomatoes into quarters. Chop green peppers and onion.
2. Mix in olive oil. Season with salt, pepper, oregano, and basil to taste.
3. Combine marinade with vegetables. Let sit for a few hours before serving.

Variations: Add garlic (to taste), or cucumbers.

Dad's Fried Eggplant

Ingredients

Procedure

1. Slice eggplant, 3/8 to 1/2 inch thick.
2. Place slices out on wax paper, lightly salt. Wait for water droplets to appear on faces of eggplant slices.
3. Fry in pan with hot olive oil, to turn faces brown. Saute until the meat of the eggplant starts to soften. Remove from pan and serve.

Dad's Stuffed Artichokes

Note: We don't know the exact amounts of ingredients for this one. Look for an update.

Ingredients

Procedure

1. Mince onions and garlic very fine.
2. Heat skillet with olive oil. Saute onions and garlic until they are a little bit brown.
3. Toss bread crumbs into skillet. Brown the bread crumbs over low heat. If the heat is too high, the bread crumbs will burn.
4. Stuff each artichoke. For each leaf of the artichoke, take a teaspoon tip of the bread crumb mixture, and stuff down into the leaf.
5. Place artichokes into a pan with a small amount of water at the bottom. Steam the artichokes until they are done.
6. To eat, pull off each artichoke leaf, then scrape off and eat the cooked crumb mixture plus artichoke meat.

Mom's Baked Potatoes

Ingredients

Procedure

1. Cut potatoes into quarters, then into small slices 1/2 inch thick.
2. Place in baking dish, with pieces of butter, salt, and pepper to taste.
3. Place in 350-400 degree oven, uncovered, for 45 minutes to 1 hour. Stir a few times while cooking. Cook until crispy, and brown on edges. Serve.

Mom's Round Steak

Ingredients

Procedure

1. Beat eggs in bowl. Arrange flour and bread crumbs in separate bowls.
2. Pound round steaks to tenderize. Dip round steaks in egg, then in flour and bread crumbs.
3. Heat skillet to low to medium heat. Cook round steaks in olive oil to medium rare. Serve.

Mom's Spaghetti Sauce

Ingredients

Procedure

1. Chop onions. Mince or crush garlic. Saute onions and garlic in olive oil, until onions are brown on edges.
2. Add ground beef. Brown the ground beef, then drain the fat from skillet. Transfer to saucepan.
3. Puree the peeled tomatoes by pressing through a wire strainer. Discard the tomato pulp remaining in the strainer. Add tomato puree to saucepan.
4. Add the can of tomato paste, and the water. Add the sugar and the salt.
5. Sprinkle oregano into the saucepan to cover the top. Sprinkle sweet basil to saucepan to cover the top.
6. Cover and simmer for one hour. Check consistency of the sauce while it is simmering. You can add up to one additional can of water while the sauce simmers, if it seems too thick.

Variations

• Over Rice: Omit the meat, serve over a plate of steamed rice.
• Stew: In place of the ground beef, add stew meat and chunks of potato, carrots, etc in step 4. Simmer along with sauce.
• Meatballs: In place of ground beef, make meatballs:

Mom's Italian Meatballs

Ingredients

Procedure

1. In bowl, combine beef with egg.
2. Add bread crumbs until the mixture is sticky, but not dry (firm).
3. Form meatballs. Size according to mood. You can make a few large meatballs for just yourself, or many small meatballs if you are serving a large group.
4. Saute (brown) meatballs on stove.
5. Place meatballs in sauce and let them simmer along with the sauce.

Last updated Sun Aug 27 11:44:52 2000

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