In This Interfaith Family, Kugel Is About More Than Just Noodles

Shared by Mindy Martorana
Recipe Roots: Chesterfield, CT > Brooklyn > Long Island

In her interfaith family — part Italian Catholic, part Ashkenazi Jewish — Mindy Martorana serves recipes from her husband’s family like meatballs and “gravy” that she learned from her mother-in-law Josephine. From her side of the family, she makes her grandmother Alice’s rich dairy noodle kugel on Easter, the fourth of July, and says it may have even graced the family’s Christmas table in years past. “I use food to remind my children about their culture and what my roots were like,” she says. 

Her family’s history can be traced through the layers of that kugel. Shortly after the turn of the 20th century, Mindy’s great grandmother Celia became ill with tuberculosis, forcing her to leave her family on the East Coast to seek treatment in a sanatorium in California. Her children went to live with their aunt, known affectionately in the family as Tonta Sonny, on a farm in Chesterfield, Connecticut. Tonta Sonny was part of the New England Hebrew Farmers of the Emanuel Society, an agrarian community for Jewish immigrants, many of whom escaped religious persecution in Europe and were living in crowded urban centers. 

Alice, Mindy’s grandmother was just four years old when she arrived on the farm. “[Sonny] would have been who taught her to cook,” Mindy explains, including the kugel. By the late 1950s, when Mindy was little, the kugel was a family staple. Living just two floors downstairs from her grandparents in a Brooklyn apartment building, Mindy fondly remembers Alice making kugel and her signature pot roast upstairs.

When Mindy and her parents moved to Long Island in 1964, the kugel traveled. Her grandparents would take the Long Island Railroad to visit and “everytime they came, she brought her kugel, baked in a disposable pie plate,” says Mindy. “We couldn't wait for her to come.” The kugel followed her to college, when her grandmother made it for friends who lived in the dorms away from home. 

And, when Mindy married and started a family, the kugel recipe was passed down. It arrived, written by hand on a thin piece of paper wishing Mindy: “Happy eating and a happy and healthy New Year. With love, Grandma.”

Noodle Kugel

Makes: 6 to 8 servings
Total Time: 1 hour and 15 minutes

Ingredients
Softened butter to grease pan
1 ½ cups cottage cheese (1-16 ounce container)
½ teaspoon kosher salt
3 eggs
¼ cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ cup red raisins
1-12 ounce package wide egg noodles

Preparation
1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Preheat the oven to 350ºF and lightly grease a 9 inch pie pan or a 9 x 13 inch rectangular baking pan with butter. 

2. Place the cottage cheese, salt, eggs, sugar and vanilla into a large mixing bowl. Whisk until the mixture is smooth and combined well. Add the raisins and mix well to distribute. Set aside.

3. Add the noodles to the pot of boiling water. Simmer uncovered for about 5 minutes. Drain the noodles and run them under cold water. Drain the noodles again.

4. Add the drained noodles into the large bowl with the cheese and egg mixture. Gently mix well to coat all the noodles. Transfer the mixture into the baking pan. Cover the pan with aluminum foil and transfer the kugel to the oven and bake for 50 to 60 minutes or until the kugel is lightly browned on top and set in the middle (Remove the aluminum foil half way through baking if the kugel is not browning on top. 

5. Serve warm.

Meatballs with Red Sauce

Mindy’s cooking is a melding of her roots and the foods of her husband’s family, who emigrated from Reggio Calabria in Italy to the United States in 1935. Before she married her husband, he insisted that she learn to make his mother Josephine’s meatballs and “gravy,” as red sauce is called in some Italian American communities. Today, the recipe is a Sunday staple in Mindy’s home.

Makes: 6 - 8 servings 
Total Time: 2 hours and 40 minutes

Ingredients
For the meatballs:
1 pound ground beef (20 - 30% fat)
1 pound ground veal
1 cup breadcrumbs 
4 eggs 
4 tablespoons olive oil
4 cloves garlic, crushed or finely chopped
2 ½ teaspoons kosher salt
½ teaspoon ground black pepper 
½ bunch fresh parsley, finely chopped, about ½ cup

For the sauce:
¼ cup olive oil, divided 
2  medium onions, finely chopped
5 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1-28 ounce cans pureed tomatoes
1-28 ounce can crushed tomatoes
2 cups water
2 teaspoons kosher salt
½ teaspoon ground black pepper
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
½ bunch fresh parsley, finely chopped, about ½ cup
1 small bunch fresh basil, finely chopped, about ⅓ cup

Preparation 
1. Make the meatballs: Place the beef, veal, breadcrumbs, eggs, olive oil, garlic, salt, black pepper and parsley into a large bowl. Mix until combined well. Set the mixture aside for 20 minutes. 

2. Sear the meatballs: Take about 2 tablespoons of the meatball mixture and loosely form a meatball with your hands. Place the meatball onto a parchment lined baking tray. Continue forming meatballs with the rest of the mixture, until you’ve formed about 16 to 18 meatballs. Place a large pot over medium heat and add the olive oil. Once the oil is sizzling, gently place about 5 meatballs into the pan and sear on all sides until browned, about 3 to 5 minutes per side. Transfer to a separate baking sheet and continue searing the rest of the meatballs in batches.

3. Make the sauce: Once the meatballs are transferred out of the pot, add the onions and garlic (without wiping the pot). Saute the onions and garlic, making sure to scrape the meat bits in the bottom of the pan from the meatballs, until the onions and garlic are translucent and lightly browned, about 10 minutes. Gently add the pureed and crushed tomatoes, water, salt, pepper, sugar, parsley and basil. Stir well and simmer the mixture uncovered over medium-low heat for 20 to 30 minutes, stirring often, or until the sauce starts to reduce. Gently place the meatballs into the tomato sauce and continue cooking uncovered, stirring occasionally, on a gentle simmer over low heat for 40 to 50 minutes until the sauce has thickened and the meatballs are cooked through and tender.

4. Serve the meatballs and red sauce hot with cooked spaghetti or ziti pasta.