Tagliatelle with Leeks and Prosciutto, topped with Pangrattato

This is one of my family's favourite pasta dishes. It's actually adapted from Jamie Oliver's recipe.

The pasta is enhanced by a topping of pangrattato, etymology of which is from pane (bread) and grattato (grated). I read somewhere that this was the poor Italian man's substitute for parmesan cheese, which was a more expensive commodity. Pangrattato is made from dried mushroom, breadcrumbs, rosemary and garlic.  In Jamie's recipe, he uses dried porcini mushrooms, but since that is very expensive here in Singapore, I just use dried shitake mushrooms and it's fine.

The dish doesn't use as much pasta as other pasta dishes because half of it is made of leeks.

Spaghetti with (Giant!) Meatballs

This is a dish my son and I love to make together. It's simple, comfort food made from scratch. Nothing fancy, just pure, simple, fresh Italian flavours.

My son had fun mixing and making the meatballs, and we made too much, but I figured we'd eat the meatballs for breakfast this week too. You can also serve them with mushroom sauce (see post on My Mom's Hamburger recipe for the sauce here).

Don't let the picture deceive you. Those meatballs are huge; 2" in diameter!

My Mom's Hamburger Recipe

There are some dishes from my childhood that I have never forgotten because they evoke such warm memories. They're comfort food, the type you'd like to eat on a rainy day, or when you're tired, or very hungry, or you simply want simple food that satisfies.

One of these dishes is my Mom's hamburger. The patties are crispy on the outside, soft on the inside, flavourful and above all, moist. The ingredients are very simple and the magic ingredient, I believe, is that dollop of mayonnaise. When I was a child, we used to eat this with a sauce of native toyo (soy sauce) and calamansi (a small, native Philippine lime).

Now I serve it to my kids at breakfast, lunch or dinner, sans the toyo and calamansi. My children also take it to school for lunch.

I've dolled up the recipe a bit by making a mushroom cream sauce to drizzle on top or serve on the side. But most of the time, we just eat it "naked," and even without this fancy Western sauce, it tastes soooo GOOD!

Bacon Wrapped Meatloaf with Gravy

Here's another ultimate comfort food: Meatloaf! This is my Mom's recipe and I just modified it over the years. We usually eat this with Macaroni Salad with Celery and Pineapple (that's another recipe altogether; another blogpost.)

This is just everyday, comfort food for us, but I sometimes serve this at parties, and it's always a hit. My guests really love the moist, flavourful meat and the gravy that comes with it. I think it has something to do with the mix of beef, pork, Vienna sausage and chopped bacon in the mix itself. And of course, there's that glorious bacon wrapped around it.

Roast Rack of Lamb

Roast rack of lamb with rosemary and garlic. Very aromatic, and simple to make! Doesn't take too much time to prepare and cook too.