When we lived in New York I attended the wonderful day school called Yeshiva of Central Queens (YCQ) and it really was a wonderful school – filled with warmth and wonderful teachers and staff. My principal, Rabbi Aaron Brander, was inspirational, not least because of the time he made for me.

Lunch, unsurprisingly, was my favourite bit of the day. We would line up with our lunch trays and be served wholesome American food: burgers and meatloaf, or macaroni and cheese and tuna bakes (don’t judge – it was the 80s) but about once a week we were served some seriously traditional Eastern European fare. It only occurred to me in retrospect that the lunch ladies were a group of Hungarian and Polish Holocaust survivors. Because these ladies were similar to the grandparents I grew up with, a tattooed number on an arm was, sadly, not unusual. On what I called ‘shtetl lunch days’ we would be served things like borscht, liver, and kasha varnishkes. And I hated those days! They were days of tomato juice instead of orange juice and black bread instead of soft white bread. This is what I didn’t know. Firstly, that the food they served could taste so much better when not cooked on an industrial scale for a school; and second, that it came from a place of love, that these women were concerned about, and it turns out they were right. The staple American diet just wasn’t all that good for us.

Today kasha varnishkes is my moment to reminisce about school lunches and the clash between our Eastern European grandparents and their American grandchildren.

INGREDIENTS:

• 500g (1 pound) large or small bow tie-shaped pasta
• 6 tablespoons (though you may need more) vegetable oil or chicken fat (schmaltz)
• 8 banana shallots, sliced in rounds
• Salt
• 480ml (2 cups) chicken or vegetable broth
• 190g (1 cup) coarse kasha (toasted buckwheat)
• Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
• 2 tablespoons finally chopped fresh parsley (optional)

METHOD:

1. Bring a large pot of well-salted water to a boil. Add the pasta, cook, until al dente. Drain well, transfer to a large bowl and drizzle with oil, set aside.
2. Heat a large sauté pan over medium-high heat until very hot, add the oil and heat until the oil shimmers, add the shallots and fry until golden, season with salt and keep cooking until deep gold. Remove to a plate.
3. Heat a dry sauce pan and add the kasha and toast until the kernels start becoming fragrant, about a minute, add the broth and lower the heat so the broth keeps simmering, but doesn’t boil, cover the pot, cook until the kasha is soft, about 10-12 minutes.
4. Add the cooked kasha and the onions to the pasta, stir and season well with salt and pepper. Sprinkle with parsley (if using) just before serving.

MAKE AHEAD:

1. Kasha Varnishkes is best served the day it is made, at most make it a day ahead and keep in an airtight container in the fridge and reheat in pot with a bit of water or stock at the bottom.