Cooking with Hannah

This past week I had the distinct pleasure of teaching my son’s girlfriend how to cook an Italian meal. I’m not Italian, but I’ve been married to one for over 26 years. I have cooked enough sauce that I’ve become a member of the club.

My mom-in-law passed away at the age of 49. She was a great lady who had lots of love to extend to me and others. My hubby was her first born. When we got married I only knew how to scramble eggs, cook a burger and make toast. My idea of sauce was Ragu (no offense to those who use it). In an Italian household it’s sacrilegious to even say “that” word. My mom-in-law came over to teach me how to make a sauce because I asked. Afterwards, I thought she would stay for dinner, but she left. She wanted me to surprise my hubby with my first attempt at sauce. How cool is she?

It’s fun for me to teach young girls to cook. This is the second time I’ve done so. My kids already know how to cook so I’m always looking to teach someone else. The following pictures are about making sauce and chicken parmesan.

In a pot place a little olive oil, salt, fresh ground pepper, thinly sliced onion (about five or six slices), and fresh garlic (about three to four cloves). Let it simmer until it starts to cook a bit. Then add tomato paste (fill the can with water and place in pot).

Open your cans of sauce and place in pan. I usually add some water at this point again. Let it cook on low to medium heat for about 45 minutes.

Then add the meat, grated cheese, oregano, basil and parsley. I used sausage for this sauce. I find my best sauces have both sausage and meat, but this was for chicken parmesan so it wasn’t necessary. Let your sauce cook for half an hour and taste (with some Italian bread of course). See if you need to adjust seasonings. This phase is a trial and error phase. When I first started making sauce I would have Tom taste and ask what was missing. I still do that just because he likes it. The secret to sauce is the longer it cooks the better it tastes.

We started off with a package of chicken breast.

Hannah learned quickly how to trim and cut the chicken.

In a bowl add some eggs, milk, salt and pepper. Place chicken in mixture.

Dip chicken in seasoned bread crumbs and fry in pan with olive oil (you can use vegetable oil). Place chicken on paper towels to remove excess oil. This piece looks like a fish.Place some sauce in a pan. Place chicken in pan and add some sauce to cover chicken but not completely. Sprinkle some grated cheese and cover in mozzarella.

Bake in oven 350 for about 20 minutes until cheese melts. Viola! This is Hannah holding up her finished product.
Thank you Hannah for sharing your evening with me. You did a great job.

© Nadine Z. 2007