Recipes

My mom Jean Catherine McNulty Meade, with her famous lasagna.

Judging by all the “mixed” marriages we run into, it’s a pretty safe bet that there are a lot Irish families out there with Italian relatives, and vice versa.

Several months ago, we celebrated “Gaelic and Garlic” heritage by posting several really scrumptious Italian recipes. Columbus Day is celebrated on Monday, so it seemed like a good idea to resurrect that story.

• Check out the recipes! Mangia!

Mamma mia: Jean Catherine McNulty Meade

When I was a kid growing up in Norwich, N.Y., and later Willow Grove, I can remember vividly the days when my mother made her tomato sauce. It seemed like an all-day project, the sound of sauce burbling away in the big aluminum stockpot, and the intoxicating Mediterranean ambrosia of olive oil and garlic filling the house.

No jarred Ragu for my mother; instead, the patient preparation of a thick, deep red, richly flavored topping for spaghetti or filling for lasagna, made all the more scrumptious by a generous dusting of Locatelli Romano cheese, grated fresh at the table, with thick, golden buttery slabs of garlic bread on the side.

Not at all bad for a woman born Jean Catherine McNulty.

How she came to cook Italian food so well is, in its way, a mystery. My grandmother died when my mother was very young, so she, her sister Mary Alice and brother Richie learned at an early age how to keep house, in a series of flats throughout Jersey City. Mary Alice in particular was the cook.

“Mary Al was good at whatever she made,” my mother recalls. “She was a great cook. She didn’t like to clean up afterwards … I was the cleaning person.”

How it came to be that Mary Alice was such a great Italian cook isn’t clear. The story I’d always heard—or thought I’d heard—was that Mary Alice learned to cook from her husband Tony Lionetti’s mother. Not true, says my mother … but the real story is lost in the mists of time. Whatever the story, Mary Alice’s in-laws were impressed.

“She was a better Italian cook than her in-laws,” my mother says. “They loved her cooking.”

The reason my mother became proficient in the ways of pasta is a lot clearer.

“When I got married, I couldn’t boil water,” she says. “The only thing I knew how to make was pancakes. I had my in-laws over for dinner, and we had pancakes. How dumb can you get?”

With Mary Alice’s help, my mother smartened up. “I was on the phone every day with Mary Alice, every time I had to cook something.”

The result, all these years later, is truly mouth-watering Italian food. (I hasten to add that, when I was growing up in Norwich, there were two Catholic churches: The snooty Irish church, St. Paul’s, up on the hill overlooking town, and the Italian church, St. Bartholomew’s, in the center of town, across from a deli. So some of my pseudo-Italian heritage comes from years of great food at festivals and spaghetti dinners, lovingly overseen by our black biretta-wearing pastor, Father Guido Festa.)

If you ask me: Why Italian food? Why Now? I can’t tell you. Maybe you should blame it on St. Patrick’s Day overload. And the truth is, if given a choice between ham and cabbage, and a simple garlicky dish of aglio y olio, I’ll go for the pasta every time.

So the first thing I thought of to share was my mother’s sauce and lasagna recipes. But then I reached out to our Facebook fans, looking for more recipes that were the offshoot, in some way, shape or form, of the marriage of tricolors.

Try them out and see if you don’t break out in a rousing chorus of “La Donna è Mobile.”

Jean McNulty Meade’s Sauce

Ingredients

4 diced or crushed garlic cloves
A little olive oil, enough to coat the bottom of a stock pot and a large frying pan (always Pompeian, in its distinctive grooved bottle, in our house)
2 6-ounce cans of tomato paste
2 tomato paste cans of water
28-ounce can of tomato puree or crushed tomatoes
15-ounce can of tomato sauce
1 teaspoon of parsley flakes
1 full teaspoon of crushed sweet Basil
½ teaspoon of sugar
½ to ¾ pound of sweet Italian sausage
¾ pound of groubd beef (93 percent fat-free)

Directions

Coat a stock pot with olive oil. Saute garlic cloves. Discard them when soft.

Add two cans of tomato paste and water. Stir.

Add tomato puree and sauce, sugar (it cuts the acidity a little), parsley and basil.

Coat a frying pan with olive oil.

Remove sausage from casing, and chop up in the pan. Add the ground beef and do the same. When cooked through, add to sauce.

Allow the sauce to simmer at least two hours. The longer, the better.

This is the same recipe my mother uses for both spaghetti and meatballs, and lasagna.

Jean’s Lasagna

Ingredients

1 16-ounce box of lasagna noodles
8 ounces of ricotta
Grated Locatelli (You’ll have to eyeball it. My mother swears by Sam’s on Moreland Road in Willow Grove)
3 cups shredded mozzarella
Sauce

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cook noodles according to the package directions. When done, place them in a strainer and run a little cold water over them.

In an oiled 13×9 pan, ladle in a little sauce, then place a layer of noodles (usually 4 across) over the sauce.

Next, place a third of the ricotta, mozzarella (space it out) and a little sauce on top of the noodles.

Layer noodles, cheeses and sauce two more times. Place the final layer of noodles on top, and then cover with sauce and Locatelli.

Cover the dish with foil (it helps to spray with cooking spray). Bake 45 minutes. Remove foil and bake another 10-15 minutes.

You’ll have a hard time sinking a fork into it right away, but let it sit for 10 minutes or so before serving.

And there’s more …

Kathy DeAngelo’s Lentil Soup

Kathy is the harp-and-fiddle half of Irish traditional music duo McDermott’s Handy. When she was growing up, lentil soup was Friday night dinner, especially during Lent. “It’s a pretty cheap meal, too, and full of nutrition,” she says, “which was very practical for our large family.”

Ingredients

1 bag of lentils
1 pkg frozen cut spinach
1 medium sized onion
Tomatoes (either 1 can tomato paste, 1 can diced tomatoes, or 1 can of tomato juice, whatever’s handy)
Parsley, Oregano, Garlic
Salt to taste

Directions
(In Kathy’s own words.)

Soak the beans if you can, overnight or for a couple of hours. It’ll take the sugar out of them and they’ll cook faster too.

Drain the lentils. Then put them in a big pot and add new water, enough to cover the lentils about 1.5 inches. Start cooking over a rather high heat.

Put in the frozen spinach (take it out of the package first!). Chop up the onion and throw that in.

You need some kind of tomatoes–look in the pantry and find whatever canned tomatoes are handy and throw that in.

How much parsley & oregano? I pour in enough to layer each on the top of the lentils, more or less. If you don’t like oregano, don’t put any in.

Garlic? For that big pot, you can start with 2 tablespoons, reserving the right to add more later if that’s what you like. Stir it all up and after the spinach breaks up, leave it alone.

When it all starts to boil, turn down the heat and cook it on medium heat. If the water steams away and it’s too thick, add more water but don’t overdo it. This should be a rather thick soup.

Serve hot and sprinkle lots of parmesan/romano on the top and a crusty slice of Italian bread with butter.

Optional adds: You can add pasta to this if you don’t mind the added calories. Little tubetini macaroni work best. Cook them separately al dente and add them to the lentils. If you’re not a vegetarian, get some Italian sweet sausage, slice it up in bite size chunks and brown it separately in a pan. Throw that into the boiling lentils mixture. You can also use tuna in this lentil soup and it’s pretty good too.

Monica Woolston-Versaggi’s “Toralli” Lemon Cookies

Monica is one of our Facebook friends, and she presented us with this sweet recipe, from her husband’s grandmother.

Ingredients

6 eggs
1 cup sugar
¾ cup oil
2 teaspoons lemon extract
5 cups sifted flour
4 teaspoons baking powder

Directions
(In Monica’s own words.)

Beat eggs; add sugar beat ‘til creamy. Add oil and lemon extract.

Add flour and baking powder which have been sifted together.

Let dough rest for 10 minutes. (It will be sticky; if I have time, I do refrigerate it overnight.)

Shape into a crescent shape ( about 1 ½ tablespoons).

Bake at 375 degrees for 10 minutes.

Icing

Ingredients

1 egg white
½ teaspoon lemon extract
1 ½ cups of confectioner’s sugar
1 teaspoon milk

Directions

Mix until a thick consistency. It should not be too thin. Spread on cool cookies.

Enjoy with a cup of tea!!

Maria Gallagher’s Eggplant Parmesan

Maria’s one of our Ladies Ancient Order of Hibernians pals. Both of her parents are second generation Italian.

“My dad’s family is from a town in Sicily called Messina, and my mom’s family is from up north near the Seashore Coastline. I am full-blooded Italian, but was able to join the LAOH because I am the spouse of an Irish member and I have a daughter who is a member of the Ladies. That is how our by-laws read.”

The recipe, Maria says, is her own, with some help from her mom.

Ingredients

2 medium-size eggplants
2 eggs
Bread Crumbs
Flour
Gravy (Known as “sauce” in some Italian households, but definitely “gravy” in Maria’s. Her gravy is homemade; you can use the jarred stuff, if you want.)
4 cups mozzarella cheese
Grated Parmesan or Romano cheese
Extra virgin olive oil

Directions

Preheat your oven tp 350 degrees.

Peel eggplant and slice into quarter-inch pieces. Salt and then pat dry.

Coat the eggplant slices in flour; shake off the excess. Dip in egg, then in bread crumbs.

Heat olive oil in pan and cook eggplant slices until brown on both sides.

Cover the bottom of a casserole dish with gravy. Add a layer of eggplant, mozzarella cheese and Parmesan or Romano cheese. Repeat with another layer until all eggplant is covered.

Bake for about 35-40 minutes.

February is a short month. Before you know it, March will be upon us and we’ll all be looking around for some great food to serve on St. Paddy’s Day. We already know that a lot of you come here for recipes. We know because our ham-and- cabbage recipe gets more hits every year than Jimmy Rollins.

So if you have a good recipe—for anything from soda bread to salmon—please send it along to us. Just click on the “contact us” button on the left and either send us your recipe or let us know how to reach you so we can get those hundreds of recipes you want to share with your fellow readers.

We asked for recipes to feed a party, and that’s what we got. Lots of traditional stews and chowders, a great recipe for fish and chips, and some delicious desserts came in from local restaurants and Irish cooks all over the Delaware Valley.

We’re adding these to our growing list of recipes that will keeping you eating great Irish food every St. Paddy’s Day–and all year long.

Lamb Stew

This recipe developed by Chef Geoff Hutton at C.J. McGee’s Restaurant and Pub was contributed by former proprietor Jack McNamee, the 2008 St. Patrick’s Day Parade Grand Marshal.

2 lbs cubed lamb
3 cups of lamb stock
2 medium onions, ½ onion minced, 1 ½ onion generously cut
6 medium carrots, inch round cuts
1 lb of baby potatoes
½ cup of flour
3 tbsp. oil
2 minced garlic cloves
1 bay leaf
1 sprig of fresh thyme, stems removed and minced
2 sprigs of fresh parsley, stems removed and minced
Salt
Pepper

Generously salt and pepper cubed lamb, then lightly coat with some of the flour (approx. 3 tbsp).  Heat up the oil in a heavy pot or saucepan.  Brown the cubed lamb in the oil, and then remove the lamb from the pot.  Add a half an onion (finely chopped) and the two minced garlic cloves to the pot, stir until onions and garlic are tender.  Add approx. 2 tbsp. of flour to the onions, garlic, and juices of the lamb.  Stir until smooth.  Add the bay leaf, fresh thyme, and lamb stock slowly to the pot, stirring constantly.  Put the lamb back into the pot, bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer for about forty-five minutes to an hour (until lamb is just about tender).  Add remaining onions (generously cut), carrots, and baby potatoes to the stew.  Simmer for another half hour or until your vegetables are tender.  Taste to see if any more seasoning is necessary, if so, add salt and pepper to taste.  Add fresh parsley to the finished stew, remove bay leaf.  If the stew is not as thick as you would like it, whisk some room temperature stock and the remaining flour together.  Whisk the blend into the simmering stew slowly, until you reach your desired thickness.     

McGillin’s Corned Beef & Cabbage Recipe

This traditional Irish-American recipe comes from our friends at McGillin’s Olde Ale House on Drury Street in Philadelphia. We stopped in there the last couple of parade days and had some great beer, but couldn’t make our way to the food (what a crowd!). Looks like we should have tried harder. McGillin’s has been contributing to the IrishPhiladelphia Virtual St. Paddy’s Day Cookbook since it began three years ago. Thanks, guys!

12-15 lb corned beef
3 cups     water
6 Tbsp pickling spices
½ cup    white wine vinegar

Place corned beef in roasting pan, pour water and vinegar into pan, sprinkle pickling spices over corned beef.  Roast for 3 hours at 300?F.  Strain juice, save on side

1  white cabbage, wedged into 1/8’s
2 lb carrots, cut into chunks
1 tsp    salt and pepper
1 cup    water

Skewer each wedge of cabbage with a toothpick to retain shape during cooking.  Line pan with cabbage wedges, chunks of carrots, salt & pepper and water.
cook 1 hour at 250?F (makes cabbage & carrots sweeter).  Retain juices.

5 lbs red bliss potato, halved
5 tsp     butter
3 tbsp    olive oil
4 garlic cloves, chopped
4 tsp    rosemary, chopped
3 tsp salt & pepper

Bake in single layer, 1 hour, at  350?F

Mix corned beef juices & cabbage juices

On your dish place cabbage wedge, carrots and corned beef.  Place potatoes around the sides and pour small amount of mixed juices over the whole platter

Seafood Chowder
The Beach Bar B&B in Templeboy, County Sligo

Contributed by Tom O’Malley, who plays guitar in the Pat The Budgie Ceili Band.  Tom told us that he got this recipe from the owner after a night of music and other craic. We don’t doubt it.

1 large onion
1 head celery
4 to 6 medium potatoes
3 to 5 cloves garlic
1 quart milk
1/2 pint heavy cream
glass of white wine (more or less)
2 lbs mixed seafood
1/4 lb. butter for roux

In large pot, Dice onion, celery, potatoes and cook in a little butter about 15 mins.  Add wine and simmer until spuds are tender.  Add milk and cream and cook another 10-15 mins.  Add roux to desired thickness.  Makes about 10 portions.

Salmon adds a great taste and texture.  Also, a little liquid smoke is nice.

CORKTOWN IRISH STEW WITH HERB DUMPLINGS

This recipe won retired police officer Phil Bowdren the First Prize Award / Amateur Class in the 2006 Hibernian Hunger Project Great Irish Stew Cook-Off held at Finnegan’s Wake.

Serves: 6 to 8

2 – 3 lb  lamb, cut into pieces (depends on how meaty you want it)
3 tbsp olive / vegetable oil
2  onions, chopped
2-3 carrots, cut into 2” pieces
4-5 potatoes, cut into quarters or 2” pieces
2  tomatoes, peeled and chopped
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 large bunch – fresh mixed herbs, tied with a string
2 cups lamb broth (get lamb bones from butcher)
1/2 cup Irish whiskey
Salt and pepper to taste

Brown meat in oil in a skillet, along with onions. (I usually do this in small batches) Add 1 shot-glass of Irish Whiskey to skillet, light to burn off alcohol (imparts flavor of whiskey to meat) Place browned meat, onions and vegetables in large cooking pot. Add garlic powder. Place herbs in middle of mixture. Cover with broth; cook approx. 2 – 2 1/2 hours over low heat. While stew is cooking, make dumplings. During last 30 minutes of cooking, bring temperature up until stew starts to bubble, and then add dumplings. Salt and pepper to taste.

Dumplings make a stew or casserole more interesting and wholesome. They should be light and not sticky. To make sure of this:

4 oz. – self raising flour
1 pinch – salt
2 oz. – fat / soft margarine
Warm water to mix
2 – 3 tsp. of fresh herbs or 1 tsp. of dried herbs. (parsley, chives or mixed herbs)
 
Sieve the flour and salt into a large bowl. Blend the herbs into dry mix (flour & Salt). Add the fat / margarine and blend with a knife. Stir in just enough water to bind the mixture, which should be just soft enough to roll into balls. Divide dough into 4 portions and roll into balls with floured hands. Make sure that the mixture is firm enough to roll in balls but is not too stiff. Once stew begins to bubble, add dumplings on top of stew and allow to cook with stew.

NOTE from Phil: Beware of “Stewies”, those people who somehow always knew when stew is on the stove and show up with their bowl or container in hand.

Easy Beef Stew

This no-hassle stew comes to you by way of Slainte Pub and Grille, a new pub at 3000 Market Street from those wonderful folks who brought you New Deck Tavern. Thank Chef Stephanie Gray and General Manager Kathleen Doyle for this delicious recipe.

5 lbs 1″x1″ cubed beef (shin meat is really tender)
1 large white onion, medium dice
2 large carrots, medium dice
2 cups peas
2 T chopped garlic
1 cup white wine
2 gallons beef stock
2 T tomato paste
To taste: salt and pepper
As needed : corn starch and water mixed to thicken
 
In a large pot saute the beef until browned and then add in the vegetables.  Once vegetables are translucent add the white wine and reduce and then add in the beef stock.  Simmer until meat and vegetables are tender.  Stir in tomato paste.  Whisk in corn starch and water mixture and boil until desired thickness is achieved.  Serve on top of mashed potatoes or boiled potatoes!
 

 
Slainte’s Fish and Chips

Another delicious entrée from Slainte.

4 8-oz. cod filets (one per person)

Beer Batter
2 c. flour
 2 T corn starch
1 egg
2 c Harp lager
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper

Combine ingredients in large bowl. The batter should be thick
enough to coat the back of a spoon but can be evened out by
adding more flour if too thin or more Harp if too thick.

Heat canola oil over a shallow frying pan to medium-high heat.
Coat each filet in a thin layer of flour and place deep in the beer
batter.

Place filet in shallow frying pan by dragging the tip around so the frying adhers to fish and then place in oil completely and fry each side until
golden brown.

For tartar sauce:
• 2 c. mayonnaise
• 1 small white onion, minced
• 2 T parsley, chopped
• 2 T relish
• 1 small lemon, juiced
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. pepper
Combine all ingredients until smooth.
Recipe serves 4 people.
For chips steak fries that your local grocery store carries are perfect and bake until crispy or fry in oil until golden brown as well.

Irish Whiskey Cake

We suspect this recipe from Carmel Boyce will make you get up and sing. How else can you explain that musical family? Sons Mike and John Boyce play in the Celtic rock group, Blackthorn, and her daughter Karen is singer with the group Causeway. Carmel and her husband, Barney, are tireless fundraisers for the Irish community and were recently named to the Ring of Honor for the 2008 St. Patrick’s Day Parade. Apparently this cake also makes you generous.
            
1 box Duncan Hines yellow cake mix                                 
1 box instant vanilla pudding                               
2 oz Irish whiskey                                                                                    
4 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup oil
1 cup walnuts

Glaze
½ cup whisky
¼ lb butter
¾ cups sugar
 
Mix first 7 ingredients. Grease and flour tube pan.  Bake at 325 degrees for approx 55-60 minutes.

Boil glaze ingredients and pour over cake.

Sprinkle with castor (superfine) sugar  (optional).

Irish Short Breads with Cherries

Bernadette Truhlar, treasurer of the Irish Center, shared several recipes with us from her mother’s file. We’re putting a few aside to print on other holidays, but couldn’t wait to try these easy cookies.

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 cup butter or margarine

4 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1 can cherry pie filling

In a mixer, beat softened butter or margarine with sugar and beat well. Add the eggs, well-beaten, and the vanilla. Slowly add the flour. Spread batter on a large ungreased cookie sheet with a rim. Add a teaspoon of the cherry mixture 1 1/2 inches apart. Bake at 325 degrees for 40 minutes. Cut into bars when cooled.

Maggie O’Neill’s Irish Whiskey Cake

When Chef Norm Staley from Maggie O’Neill’s Irish Pub and Restaurant in Drexel Hill first uttered the words, “18 two-pound loaf pans,” we thought we’d never be able to use this restaurant-sized recipe in our annual cookbook. But then we joined the Ladies Ancient Order of Hibernians annual Irish potato-making event (they sell the candies and give the money to charity) and we remembered:  There are plenty of kind folks out there who are saving the world one bake sale at a time. Ladies and Gents, this one is for you! Thanks, Norm!

18  2 lb loafs pans

6 ¾ lbs of yellow cake mix
3 lbs vanilla pudding mix
5 cups Irish whiskey Jameson or Powers
4 cups milk
3 c vegetable oil
30 eggs
6 cups chopped walnuts

Whip eggs in a blender until they’re almost coming out of bowl–about15 minutes. You want them to be nice and airy.

While the eggs are whipping, combine the whiskey, milk, and oil together and whisk. 
 
Mix  the dry ingredients–cake mix, pudding and walnuts—in another bowl.

Add dry and the wet together, mix with spoon.

When eggs done, fold them into the mixture gently. 

Pour the batter into 18 2 lbs loaves (or 20 1 lb loaf pans). Fill to almost half.

Bake in oven 35 minutes at 350 degrees.

Glaze

1 ½ butter
3 cups sugar
3 cups of whiskey

Bring whiskey and sugar to almost q boil, whisking the whole time. Add the butter in cubes,  and whisk on low flame till it boils.

Pour or brush over loaves when they’ve cooled on a wire rack and are back in the loaf pan.