I’m certain I’m not the first one to notice, but I must ask anyway. Exactly who was it and when that decided half of all Italian foods must begin with the letter “P”? Hey, even if you start typing “Italian food” in the Google toolbar one of the suggestions it offers is “starting with P”, and that’s based on the popular searches — so it’s not just me!

Oddly enough Google’s first 100 results never once listed a single page that actually corresponds to the search. It did find a bizarre reference to “P. Diddy’s Pasta” which you don’t want to know about …. Can you say time for another algorithm tune-up, Big G? I mean, wow, you couldn’t even match 1 in 100 to your own toolbar suggestion? That’s just sad. But enough of SEO and let’s get back to eating.

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There are so many combinations of meatloaf in the world. Use 100 percent beef. No, use beef and pork. No, has to be the tri-meat combination of beef, pork and veal. No, it’s lamb as the third, not veal. You can use milk-soaked bread, big crouton things purchased or made yourself. You can use breadcrumbs. Nope, use the oats in oatmeal. With and without eggs. Mayonnaise as an extra binder; no way, hold the mayo. Gotta have some gravy. Gravy has to be brown. No, it’s gotta be tomato. No gravy anywhere; that ruins it. … And the list goes on and on.

And then, like myself, many cooks have more than one meatloaf. Why? Same as above. There’s so many ways to do it and there’s no one right way. In fact, it’s pretty tough to mess up. Hope all you newbie cooks are listening up. Meatloaf is many things: The perfect comfort food being one. And an excellent dish to start on if you’ve never or rarely cooked before.

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I love this town. I love it for so many reasons, too many, I won’t even get into cause I might not be able to stop. But one of the reasons is food, baby. Philly is hometown to so many foods, it’s just crazy. Probably first that comes up on everyone’s list is the Philly Cheesesteak. If not that, it’s the Hoagie. Whats a hoagie? Ever have something called a “sub” or submarine? Ever have something called a “hero” or hero sandwhich? Well, if so, they are just pale, lack-luster imitations of a hoagie.

What else? There’s the Philly pretzel. Much superior to those things they burn in NYC and call pretzels. There’s scrapple, a mysterious and wonderful substance — sorta like haggis, not in taste, in mystery — that is a wonderful alternative to bacon, ham and sausage as a breakfast meat to go along with your eggs. And then, to my surprise, there’s the stromboli.

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Taken straight from Wikipedia: “Mirepoix is the French name for a combination of onions, carrots and celery […] is the flavor base for a wide number of dishes, such as stocks, soups, stews and sauces. […] Traditionally, the ratio for mirepoix is 2:1:1 of onions, celery, and carrots.”

So today’s magic number, ladies and gentlemen, is 2-1-1. Though I find that can be confusing (believe it or not, at times). So maybe a better way is thinking 1 and half and half … one part onions, and the combination of half carrots and half celery. So 2-1-1 or 1-.5-.5, whichever works for you. How to remember which item gets the “2″? Think of “OCC”, of onions, carrots, celery, in that order.

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This is somewhat like a ratatouille, sorta like a cacciatore, in a sense like a stew, and apparently is a ragout (though it seems a million things could be a ragout). It appears from spending a great deal of time researching on the Web trying to find what was the most appropriate way to label this recipe, that in the end, it’s very much my own concoction. That should make me happy. And yes, it does — but, it’s one of those rare times when thinking of the name of dish was a ton more difficult then actually coming up with or even cooking the dish!

Ok, let’s explore what it’s similar to and yet not: Cacciatore which is usually definied as a hunter-style preparation with tomatoes, onions, mushrooms, herbs, and bell peppers. Now while all of those elements are indeed main ingredients, the real deal almost always contains red wine and capers, whereas mine doesn’t. Moreover, yes, cacciatore is most often found with chicken seems like it’s a shoe-in, but no, for it is not made with bonesless chicken breast but legs and theighs and the bones intact, the idea being to made a flavorful “stew” of darker meats “hunter” (as in just caught) style. This is close though.

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Did this one with a decidedly Moroccan influence in the marinade. Yes I know, when you see in the list below I’ve used soy sauce, you’ll surely recognize that isn’t exactly at the top of the list of ingredients for Rabat. Point is it works (and why I say the marinade was “influenced” as opposed to straight out “Moroccan”.)

Btw, you might also think lamb more than beef when considering this North African country, and you’d be correct that lamb, goat and such are high on the list. But beef is a close second to lamb there these days. That said then, do feel free to substitute lamb if you wish. I just can’t give a 100% guarantee that the amounts of spices in the marinade would work without making adjustments or not. Right now, every thing is calculated for the stronger beef flavor. If you try it with lamb, my instincts tell me to half the cumin, and to then add the same amount you just subtracted with the same amount of dried mint. If you have fresh, all the better.

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