In most of Donna Ramirez's Methuen home, nothing is out of place. It's so pristine, it could be a model home.
Then you come down to her kitchen, which is located in the basement to maintain the extreme cleanliness upstairs. Here, there are signs of life - the snap of a deep-fryer, the smell of tomato sauce and a light dusting of flour over the counter.
Here, Ramirez follows her passion, cooking for friends, family and co-workers at Home Depot in Methuen.
"My life is cooking; I live and breathe to cook," she said.
Ramirez learned to cook from her late mother, Ann Azevedo, who, with husband Edwin, was famous North of Boston for both their elaborate Christmas displays and taking in 299 foster children over the years.
"My mother's house was always Grand Central Station," said Ramirez. "She was always cooking - I do the same thing. She was amazing."
There was always a crowd at the Azevedo home, and Ramirez's mother turned to her Italian heritage or her husband's Portuguese culture to come up with dishes for the entire family.
"Anything Italian I can cook," Ramirez said. "And I don't know how to cook small."
Even when her four children - Edward, Cheri, Eric and Alfonso Jr. - were growing up, Ramirez always made time to cook. These days, she frequently finds inspiration from shows on the Food Network, which she says she watches "obsessively," and will often try a dish she sees there.
"If I see a recipe on the (Food Channel), I don't write it down," she said. "If it impresses me, I go do it."
The only time she's had any difficulty cooking was when she tried to learn how to do it Dominican-style. Her husband, Alfonso Ramirez Sr., is from the Dominican Republic and after they married, Donna tried a few dishes without much success. Her first attempt was a classic paella-like rice dish.
"It was like glue," she said.
Though that experience was trouble, it turned out to be a temporary setback. She's since mastered Dominican cooking.
"Now I do it all by sight," she said. "You pick it up."
Among Ramirez's specialties are her quandis - Italian, ribbon-like pastry made with deep-fried dough and powdered sugar - as well as homemade pizza and sausages, which she makes not only for her family, but also for the Feast of the Three Saints, an annual Labor Day weekend tradition in Lawrence.
Then you come down to her kitchen, which is located in the basement to maintain the extreme cleanliness upstairs. Here, there are signs of life - the snap of a deep-fryer, the smell of tomato sauce and a light dusting of flour over the counter.
Here, Ramirez follows her passion, cooking for friends, family and co-workers at Home Depot in Methuen.
"My life is cooking; I live and breathe to cook," she said.
Ramirez learned to cook from her late mother, Ann Azevedo, who, with husband Edwin, was famous North of Boston for both their elaborate Christmas displays and taking in 299 foster children over the years.
"My mother's house was always Grand Central Station," said Ramirez. "She was always cooking - I do the same thing. She was amazing."
There was always a crowd at the Azevedo home, and Ramirez's mother turned to her Italian heritage or her husband's Portuguese culture to come up with dishes for the entire family.
"Anything Italian I can cook," Ramirez said. "And I don't know how to cook small."
Even when her four children - Edward, Cheri, Eric and Alfonso Jr. - were growing up, Ramirez always made time to cook. These days, she frequently finds inspiration from shows on the Food Network, which she says she watches "obsessively," and will often try a dish she sees there.
"If I see a recipe on the (Food Channel), I don't write it down," she said. "If it impresses me, I go do it."
The only time she's had any difficulty cooking was when she tried to learn how to do it Dominican-style. Her husband, Alfonso Ramirez Sr., is from the Dominican Republic and after they married, Donna tried a few dishes without much success. Her first attempt was a classic paella-like rice dish.
"It was like glue," she said.
Though that experience was trouble, it turned out to be a temporary setback. She's since mastered Dominican cooking.
"Now I do it all by sight," she said. "You pick it up."
Among Ramirez's specialties are her quandis - Italian, ribbon-like pastry made with deep-fried dough and powdered sugar - as well as homemade pizza and sausages, which she makes not only for her family, but also for the Feast of the Three Saints, an annual Labor Day weekend tradition in Lawrence.
"I can't tell you what I put in them," said Ramirez, who rarely uses recipes but relies on a family one for the varieties of sausages she makes.
In her dishes, Ramirez relies on fresh ingredients (except for her sauce, which includes Pastene's San Marzano tomatoes from Italy) and almost always cooks from scratch. She prefers imported cheese - whether is a pecorino Romano for her pizza or a provolone for her sausage.
No matter what her schedule, Ramirez always cooks.
"I find time. I work a regular job. I go to work at 2 a.m. and come home at 10 a.m.," she said. "If you really love something, it is not tiresome. It comes naturally."
She's also passing her culinary knowledge onto her grandson, 13-year-old Ed Wallace of Methuen.
"It's hard at parts, but it's fun," he said.
Donna Ramirez's favorite recipes
Pizza
Dough ingredients (Note: This makes enough for six pizzas - it's best to make the dough and divide it, freezing what you don't need right away than trying to divide the ingredients.)
51/2 pounds of flour
1/4 cup salt
2 packages of yeast
1/4 cup warm water
Dough directions:
Dissolve the yeast in the warm water, and let it foam.
Put the flour in a large mixing bowl, and make a well in the flour and put foamy water in.
Mix to a smooth consistency. Cover loosely with plastic and a towel. Let the dough rise a few hours until it doubles in size. Shape into balls for each pizza.
Sauce ingredients (this is enough for three pizzas, the remainder can also be frozen)
1 can Pastene San Marzano tomatoes, ground
1 teaspoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon of pepper
1 tablespoon of sugar
Sauce directions
Bring all ingredients to a boil and simmer for 15 minutes.
Other ingredients:
Pecorino Romano cheese
Mozzarella cheese
Oregano
Any other favorite toppings
Assembling the pizza:
Preheat oven to 550 degrees
Grease a cookie sheet and smooth dough over the entire surface, folding the sides of the crust over.
Ladle sauce onto the dough. Sprinkle with a little oregano and grate pecorino Romano cheese onto the sauce-covered dough. Put in oven for about 10 minutes to brown crust. Remove from oven and add mozzarella and other toppings as desired, and cook for another 10 to 15 minutes, or until cheese is melted.
Quandis
Ingredients:
6 eggs
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup melted butter
1 teaspoon of vanilla
1 teaspoon of baking powder
4 cups of flour
Powdered sugar (for sprinkling)
Directions:
Heat a deep fryer to 350 degrees
Combine eggs and sugar and beat until fluffy. Add butter, vanilla, baking powder and flour, then knead until smooth.
With either a rolling pin or a pasta machine, flatten the dough to a paper-think opaqueness.
Cut into strips with a grooved pastry knife (for a ribbon-like design).
Tie strip in a loose knot. Drop into deep fryer and lightly brown on each side.
Remove and place on a paper towel to blot oil.
When cool, sprinkle with powdered sugar.
Tomato and Cheese Sausage
Donna Ramirez makes her famous sausages from a closely guarded family recipe, but never measures ingredients. She won't give out her exact procedure or proportions, but this is a rough idea about how she prepares them. She suggests cooks experiment on their own.
* Several pounds extra lean pork butts
* Butcher or regular black pepper
* Salt
* Block provolone cheese
* Fresh tomatoes, cubed
* Caramelized garlic
* Bag of casings/pig intestines soaked overnight.
Combine all of the ingredients to taste except for the casings. Attach the casings a sausage stuffer. Put in the mixture of ingredients, and crank the machine, pushing meat through into the casings. When finished making the sausage in the size of your choice, twist off ends of casing. When cooking finished sausages, grill until browned all the way through.
