When greeting my mother-in-law, she would always respond when asked how she was doing with two words and a shrug of the shoulders. The two words were “menza menza” which is Italian slang for “ok” or “half and half” (the word for “half” in Italian is mezza). That pretty-well described her physical and mental condition….as she would explain, some days were good, other days not so good. Hence, menza menza. My mother-in-law lived to be 100 years-old and she has been gone now for several years. “Menza menza” is still with us today though and pops up every so often in our conversations.
I shared many discussions about cooking with her….and did she cook?!! She would tell me how her father cooked (she lost her mother when she was very young) and how her older sister operated in the kitchen. Her father would walk far across the 16th St. Viaduct from “the Bottoms” (Italian area in Denver) to downtown where all of the fresh markets were (think 1920’s and ‘30’s). She would explain how her father would bring home fresh pork and full wheels of cheese from the market. They raised their own tomatoes, zucchini, onions and garlic in their small yard. Every Sunday, there was a huge bowl of pasta with meatballs and a fresh salad on the table. Everything was Italian.
We shared our fondness not only for the “macs” as she would call the pasta, but for the sausage and peppers fried on the stove in olive oil. Not to mention other great dishes like polenta, pasta fagioli, fresh zucchini and onions, anchovies on homemade pizza, lupini beans and of course the cookies….Italian cookies. She started baking early in the fall for the holidays and it was always fun to see where she hid all the tins filled with freshly baked cookies in different rooms of the house so no one would eat them before the holidays arrived.
But, she never cooked lamb. Likewise, my mother cooked lamb often but seldom cooked pasta and if she did it was in a white sauce (unheard of in my mother-in-law’s house). Fortunately, today our house is truly “menza menza” where we consume American lamb meat and “macs” on a regular basis.
Perhaps the variance in diet was due to the culture (Italian vs. Basque) but I think it was due to convenience. Growing up on a farm with thousands of sheep right outside the back door or at least in the local area made local lamb meat a staple in our diet. Perhaps in the old days of Denver, lamb meat wasn’t as prevalent. I can’t go back in time to know but if the experience of going to our big box grocery stores today is of any comparison then I can conclude that it is difficult to have lamb meat as a staple in today’s diet. American lamb meat is not easily accessible (with most of what we see in the store coming from New Zealand or Australia) and when we do find it there usually isn’t much of a variety.
Many years ago, when the Italian relatives from San Mateo, CA decided to visit over the Fourth of July weekend, we wanted to host a dinner party for them. It was a sweltering, hot weekend. My father-in-law had expressed an interest in eating lamb but due to the excessive heat, grilling lamb chops outside was not really an option. So, I opted to roast a leg of lamb early in the morning the day before the dinner. Then, on the day of the dinner, we thinly sliced the tender, delicious lamb and seasoned it with salt, pepper, granulated garlic, fresh parsley and olive oil. We kept it cool in the refrigerator before plating it on the large platter for serving. The accompanying garlic bread and fresh (Italian) salad made for a refreshing, summer-friendly meal and menza-menza…. they all loved it.
We often reminisce about my mother-in-law’s long life. She bounced back from gallbladder surgery in her mid-nineties and lived to be 100 and 9 months old. She had a long, happy and healthy life. How much did her life-long diet of carnivorous, fresh-eating play a role in her longevity is a good question. While American lamb meat never became a staple in her diet, who knows how much longer she might have lived if it had.
Roasted Leg of Lamb Recipe
Season a vegetable mix such as carrots, onions and potatoes in a separate bowl, add a small amount of olive oil and place in the bottom of a dutch oven.
Pat the leg of lamb dry with a paper towel and then cut slits in the roast. Season the roast with salt, pepper, rosemary, parsley and thyme and insert cloves of fresh garlic in the slits. Place the roast on top of the vegetables. Drizzle olive oil on the roast and cook in a preheated 350’ oven for about 1 – 1 ½ hours or until the internal temperature reaches 145’.
Check halfway through and remove lid so the lamb will brown. Drizzle with olive oil if necessary. Once the lamb has reached the internal temperature, remove it from the oven and let rest for about 15 minutes. The lamb can then be sliced and served with the roasted vegetables on the side along the juices from the pan.
Note: This recipe is an excellent summer recipe when roasted in the oven in the early morning. After taking it out of the oven and letting it rest, slice it thin and let it come to room temperature. It makes an excellent sandwich or serve it with a good Italian dressing or simple olive oil vinaigrette on an antipasto platter.