Un menu de dimanche en famille

Family dinner on Sunday is something traditional in France, as I’m sure it is in the United States, and it is a time when children and parents can all be at home together and at the table. The weekend, too, is a lovely time for a grasse matinée–lazy morning–and so a Sunday menu with many of the dishes done the day before is always practical. Certainly a soup is an easy first course, and the potage de petits pois aux fins legumes, which can be made with either fresh or frozen peas, is the sort of warm start to a meal that I would serve in cooler months. In the summer, with beautiful tomatoes and radishes ready in the garden, I would not hesitate to substitute a pretty platter of raw vegetables for the soup. The nougat de boeuf is a tasty beef stew in red wine, with the olives at the end adding an interesting quality to the dish. The vegetables that cook with the meat are puréed to bind the sauce and enrich the flavor, which I feel gives a light and satisfactory result. The stew would be at its best if made the day before and reheated, to allow the meat to absorb all of the flavors. If you wish a vegetable accompaniment as well as the buttered noodles, fresh broccoli would go nicely with the beef.