Thank you so much for the intro about "other peoples' memories" of recipes. It's so absolutely true and I was happy to see someone voice the opinion. We all forget, sometimes, that all of our family recipes are unique and meaningful (and tasty) within their own context.
For example, I have a cookbook published by the American-French Genealogical Society filled with family recipes. In the book, there are no less than 10 or 20 recipes for Tourtiere (French Meat Pie) and every one of them is very different.
Of course, I like mine the best. :-) It's not a recipe from my own family, but it was handed-down to me by a wonderful French lady and I hold both the recipe and her dear to my heart.
Incidentally, Rhode Island has one of the better known "Little Italy's" in the country, so we're pretty familiar with Wedding Soup around here (even to us Canadian French folks). Around here, you'd find the meatballs even smaller (think marbles) and I think you'd more commonly find escarole instead of spinach in it. Then again, there's always "Chicken and Escarole" soup and "Venus DeMilo" soup (which I'm pretty sure is similar to Chicken Escarole but named after a local restaurant that serves it).
Ah, Justin - you're so right. Marble-sized meatballs are more traditional, but I just get too crazed making ALL those teeny-tiny meatballs... and yes, escarole is very traditional, but I figured spinach was much easier for folks to get. And I hear you about R.I. - I lived there for four years, in college. BUDDY!!!!!!! (You know who I mean...) :) PJH
January 26, 2010 at 9:25am