I have more time to cook. Food is a gateway to culture (as I am sure someone has said before) and to language. Grocery aisles filled with brands, descriptions and flavors. Vegetable stands packed with Spanish nouns. Meat and cheese stores with only a few items that seem familiar. Recipes dutifully translated between metric and imperial.
There is an art of kitchen translation.
So when I volunteered to make the main plate for the holiday family lunch with a day's notice, I was a little nervous. Cooking for one adventurous eater is fine but for five others who like meat and who may not be as adventurous? Well, I've always been a risk taker and a believer in the power of prayer.
The first time I had lasagna here I was quite surprised to find a layer of ham. (Six months later, I now expect ham in everything and when a dish is delivered without it, I am a bit over-joyed though I do try to use my Southern "this is wonderful" poker face.) My mom has been making a wonderful vegetarian cheese lasagna for years and this was the dish I would try to replicate.
This culinary assignment taught me about pasta noodles, more about our crazy 1-10 oven, and that cottage cheese can only be found at specialty cheese stores. (In the end I gave up on finding it when it did not translate well.) Instead I substituted roasted vegetables from the week's trip to verdulería and I grated blocks of cheese.
Not exactly like Mom used to make (and it required an additional trip to the grocery store between layers two and three), but I was happy to bring a little piece of East Tennessee into Argentina.
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| Lasagna as a Spanish Lesson May 2017 |
Side note: the more traditional dish for 25 de Mayo is Locro. (Filed away for future reference)
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