FAMILY COMMUNION

Anyone with family recipes knows that food is sacred

Anyone with family recipes knows that food is sacred

As a Jersey-Italian, I join the collective construction of family by taste. 

As a pastor, I recite ancient recipes through oral transmission that touch our tastebuds to immortality.

Food makes us who we are. 

Today we gather and grieve my Uncle Dave and cousin Jennifer who died last week..

I defy death and protest their passing by passing along simple sample recipes that I learned from each of them.

I hereby conscript you to increase their immortality by preparing one of these recipes and savoring their unselfish contribution to culinary joy. 

Uncle Dave’s Bruschetta 

Combine in a large bowl:

10 diced Roma tomatoes (cut off and throw out the ends)

1 diced small purple onion or half of a large one

Balsamic vinegar and Olive Oil in roughly equal proportion until they submerge ⅓-½ of the tomato and onion mixture.

Stir

Grate parmesan cheese until Uncle Dave’s smiling spirit tells you to stop. 

Add a little bit of salt to draw out the other flavors. 

Bruschetta should not taste salty.

Stir. Taste. Add more of whatever you think it needs. 

Serve with either miniature pieces of toast, bagel chips or pita chips and say a prayer of thanks for Uncle Dave.

Jen’s Sausage Sandwich

Get those good hamburger rolls from the grocery store bakery.

Buy either loose italian sausage meat or buy the links, squeeze the ground sausage meat out and throw away the casings. You may be wondering if you should get sweet, mild or hot italian sausage. Jen would tell you to get whatever the hell would taste good to you. 

Form the sausage meat into patties. 

Grill the sausage patties. If you can’t grill them, then you can cook them in a skillet but they taste better grilled.

When the sausage patty is almost finished, put on a slice of provolone cheese to get it good and melty. If you substitute the Provolone cheese with Cheddar or American cheese instead, God help you because Jen might curse your kitchen and she won’t feel bad about it.

Serve cooked sausage patty with cheese on a bun (toasting optional). Spread a bunch of sriracha sauce on top of the patty and don’t whine about sriracha being too spicy or not Italian. It’s delicious.