- Welcome back to "The Great Minnesota Recipe".

Last time we traveled to Vergas, Minnesota to meet Tomorrow Tanksley, a professional chef with Southern roots.

Today we're headed to the small town of Buhl, Minnesota.

This tight-knit welcoming community on the Iron Range is the hometown of our next cook, Susie Saccoman.

My friend, Sharon, met up with Susie at Billy's Bar to make some delicious Italian food.

- [Announcer] Funding for "The Great Minnesota Recipe" is provided by Daugherty Appliance Service and Sales, the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and viewers like you.

Thank you.

(upbeat bright music) (upbeat tranquil music) - My name is Susie Saccoman and I am 50 years old.

I'm from Buhl, Minnesota, right here.

- Okay, so I'm really excited to see where you grew up.

We're on Memorial Drive, right?

- Yes.

- This is the main drag, would you say, to the city?

- No, maybe back in the day this used to be the main highway, but this is Memorial Drive and this is where we grew up my whole childhood.

Our door was orange.

(laughs) But you know what's so cool is that I grew up with the kid who bought this house with her husband.

Julie!

- Yeah?

- Hi.

- Hi.

- Oh my gosh, they're here.

(laughs) - Hi.

I just have to give you a hug.

We come home here to Buhl, not nearly enough, but whenever we do, over the years, for reunions or just weekends.

It's every time we come home, it's just really a special thing.

We have a lot of Buhl community members that still stayed here the whole time.

So I always think about them and thank them that if it wasn't for all of our Buhl people that stayed and didn't leave, I don't think Buhl would be quite the same, but when we come home there's just that feeling like we're home again.

- How do you think the Buhl community has really affected your cooking?

Especially, even when you were young, right?

Have you been cooking all your life?

- I've been around, in my opinion, the best cooks all my life.

And I think my nana, my dad's mom, and of course my auntie and my mom and my mom's mom, and also my godmother who lives right up the street, Tona.

There were all those strongest influences in my cooking we're strong women.

(laughs) We were always in the kitchen.

My nana would make homemade ravioli and homemade spaghetti.

And every single Sunday, my mom and dad would load us in the station wagon and we'd go to Nashwauk every Sunday and 20 of us would eat together every Sunday and my Nana would cook everything.

Homemade sauce and meatballs and we fed each other with...

It was all just the way we loved each other, being around food and tasting the food and watching these women cook the food and serve the food.

It was love.

(gentle bright music) - Susie, I'm so excited, now tell me what we're making today.

- [Susie] Homemade gnocchi with red sauce and meatball.

- Yum, I'm so excited.

Is there a specific potato that you use that you prefer?

- Yes, good question.

I really love Yukon Golds.

- [Sharon] Are they just easier to work with for the gnocchi?

- You can use any potato really, it's just my preference to use Yukon Golds.

If you wanna turn, you could just cut this potato into quarters.

- Okay.

- If you don't mind?

- I do not mind.

- It's so much fun cooking with somebody, because it's like cooking with my students, although they always did this part and then I did that part.

- So you're a teacher, you mentioned students.

Are these big enough are these too big or too small?

- Perfect.

- Okay, tell me who you teach.

- I taught 5th grade in Minneapolis for 22 years, but I've been teaching 5th grade since 1994, and I got my first teaching job in Windhoek, Namibia, '94 to '96.

- So from Buhl, Minnesota- - First time flying.

(laughs) - Wow!

What adventure.

- It was so cool.

Then I came back home and I started teaching in Minneapolis in 1999.

- And the water's boiling?

- Yep, and it's boiling and it's a little hot, but I just check that they're fork-tender about 15 minutes in.

- [Sharon] Same as mashed potato, would you say?

- [Susie] That's exactly what we're doing.

- Now tell me, you said you were a teacher, you told me you are a teacher.

- Yes.

- How has your cooking spilled into your teaching?

- My students, from 22 years in Minneapolis schools, they would tell you we would have recipe day with Ms. Saccoman.

We did it often.

I usually did it for an incentive for doing well, or maybe once a month or more.

Sometimes I'd make gnocchi dough the night before and I'd bring everything, and the kids, they'd all have aprons on and they'd be able to... What I always did when I cooked with them is I would show them a demonstration of everything and then after, then I'd give them all the clean surfaces and they'd roll out the gnocchi.

So I had my African American kids and my Somali kids and all my students from all backgrounds rolling gnocchi, and 3rd grade, 4th grade, 5th grade, 8th grade, kids with terribly difficult challenges, behaviorally, or my autistic kids, nonverbal autistic kids, watching them in the kitchen, it was extraordinary, it really was.

- When you're giving them a piece of Buhl?

- Yeah, they were always like, "I can't believe we made sauce with just those vegetables, I always buy ragu.

", you know?

I'm like, don't ever buy ragu again.

(Sharon laughs) (upbeat lofty music) I think we'll start on our meatballs.

I'm gonna start by getting one onion and some garlic.

- [Sharon] Okay.

Would you like me to prep the garlic for you?

How many cloves would you like?

- Let's go with four.

Because I'm putting these in my meatballs, I want the onions to be as finely diced as possible.

- [Sharon] Okay.

- Okay, so we have onions and some great garlic there.

- Garlic, yep.

- Usually just a tid, when you wanna gather, then you use the back of your knife.

- Great tip.

- So that you don't make the knife dull.

And then, that's ready to go.

So I'm just gonna get...

I'll betcha any money.

So here, let's take one out.

- All right.

- Because you cut 'em so nice.

- Thank you.

- And they're gonna be really hot.

But can you cut through it?

- Yep, easily.

- Perfect.

- All done.

Beautiful.

So we turn this one.

- Oh, that's beautiful.

- And we got this ready.

- All right, we're gonna drain these potatoes.

- These are gonna have to be drained.

And then I'll get this fun little pan go on here.

- Okay, now what's the pan for?

- This is gonna be for our onion.

- Now we're gonna sweat it out, right?

- Yes.

- Okay.

- So a little bit of that olive oil.

- Okay.

Here you go.

- Ooh, it's hot in the kitchen.

Feels good.

- [Sharon] Are you at medium heat there?

- Yeah, I'm gonna turn it, 'cause these gas stoves are pretty powerful.

Now that they're going, I'm just gonna turn it down and leave 'em so I don't have to worry about it.

The only time that I use this thing, it's a ricer.

But the reason why I use it for gnocchi is 'cause then it makes the potato super smooth, and definitely in gnocchi I don't want lumps.

- [Sharon] Okay, so if you don't have a riser at home you can still make this?

- You can just, a lotta times people will whip their mashed potatoes.

Just think of making mashed potatoes as creamy as possible.

And then what I do is I let the potato cool, and move back onto the meatballs.

- Do you let them cool on the countertop, or do you need them- - Yep, just on the counter.

(bright music) - Your Italian influence and Yugoslavian influence, in the community of Buhl, what does it mean to you in taking all those parts of your family history and your community and how it's affected your cooking?

- Oh, I joke, because in Buhl we kinda suffer from high self-esteem.

(chuckles) I think it's just the way I was raised, there's this confidence and the Italian culture, when I grew up, it was like extremely affectionate.

I think now, that we're a little bit older, my brothers and I talk about this all the time, we can appreciate things that we didn't really realize, and now that we're looking back, and I'm really fortunate.

You hear about so much pain and different things, people having tough childhoods, I have no memories of anything except love.

And now I also want the onions to cool a little bit.

before I put 'em in the meatballs, and it's perfect because they will cool before the meatballs are ready for them.

There we go.

- So what we have here, would you say two pounds of beef, 1.5 pounds of pork?

- It's a pound and a pound.

- Pound and a pound.

- Yeah.

I'm just putting two eggs.

- Two eggs.

Okay.

So you do mix basil and Italian parsley together?

- Yeah, we have our eggs, pork, beef, one pound each, herbs.

And then.

- Oh, Parmesan.

You just sprinkle how much you want or do- - Yeah, I usually do about a half a cup.

- Okay.

Mm-hmm.

- And in my opinion, I just don't think you can use too much cheese.

Then coarse seed black pepper, probably about a tablespoon and a half.

- Okay.

- And another tablespoon of salt.

I'm gonna put the oven on 350.

- [Sharon] Okay.

I'm gonna mix it up and then together we'll ball 'em out.

- [Sharon] Okay.

- Can you see that Vigo?

- Yes.

- Perfect, dump that in.

Go ahead and dump that.

- The whole thing?

- Yeah.

- Okay, so we're adding probably what?

- I would say a cup.

- Okay.

- And if you wanna grab that Italian season in that little (indistinct) and sprinkle some of that in.

And once you see that the egg is incorporated- - Then that's good enough.

- Yeah.

Otherwise, they'll become too firm.

Then what I do is I put 'em in the oven just to brown 'em a little bit.

I just leave them in for about 15 minutes, 10 minutes, and when they're kinda brown and smelling yummy, then they can meet the sauce and then the two of them cook together.

When the sauce is on the stove, the meatballs will be ready to go in, and then you just leave it, and the longer, the better.

I'm gonna pop these in the oven, 350, till the sauce is ready.

So this is where my brothers and I all went to school.

Martin Hughes, at one point we're in the building together, 'cause it was a K-12 building.

- Oh, that is so funny.

- Isn't that cool?

- Is so cool.

Would you walk to school?

- [Susie] Oh yeah, I always walked to school, and it was a little bit far, but we loved it.

- And how many people are in Buhl?

- When I grew up, there were 1,303.

(Sharon laughing) I'm not sure what the sign says now.

- (laughing) Those three.

- This school really was the heartbeat of our city.

I remember my junior year...

I can't remember, I think it was my junior year, I led a walkout.

(laughs) Yeah, there was a big... We were trying to save Martin Hughes.

(bright music) - If you had to give a two-minute pitch to somebody on Buhl, what would you say is unique about Buhl?

(Susie laughs) - There's something about this town that is just very magical.

But if I had only a few minutes, I would say, it's like...

There's a sign out front, when you first drive in, and (chuckles) I would say to my friends, it says welcome to Buhl, (hiccup's) home of abundant water, land, (hiccup's) and good people.

That's Buhl.

No matter who you are, you're welcome here.

I promise you, I've seen it.

You're you're welcome in Buhl.

This whole alley, I can't even- - This is everybody.

- All the kids would run around and play in here.

- And I'm telling you, Richie and Shirley live here still.

And Shirley did my hair, she was the town hairstylist.

Oh!

Hi, Shirley.

(chuckles) I'm just showing them where I grew up.

- [Sharon] Are you excited for the competition?

- Yes, I can't wait, because I was thinking about what is one of my favorite dishes that my godmother made?

Tona was born and raised here, so she's like a pillar of this community.

Full Italian, she was an exceptional cook, she could cook blindfolded.

And so I thought of an idea for a hot dish to bring Tona to life.

And I don't think I've ever created a dish with more love than this one, so I'm super excited.

- Moving on to the sauce, right?

- And then we're done.

So if you wouldn't mind, I'll put two cloves more of garlic.

- [Sharon] Okay.

Yeah, go ahead.

- Add the garlic?

- Yeah.

- Okay.

- In fact, I would've said, that's fine too, but you can just put a clove in 'cause it's all going in the blender.

- Some oregano (indistinct).

- Oregano (indistinct).

- And- - Italian parsley.

- Yep.

Quarter- - Okay, so you're leaving the skin on?

- Yeah, I'll just snip, and then, boom, boom.

But because I can't fit lots in here I'm gonna do it in a couple different batches.

So now, if you have good...

If you have garden tomatoes, obviously.

But you have to have some store-bought tomatoes because you want the liquid.

And I only get San Marzanos.

Little bit of kosher salt.

- Little bit.

- Little bit.

And notice how everything pretty much has the same...

The sauce, the meatballs, Italian seasonings.

- So Susie, you put the can tomatoes in, if I had fresh garden tomatoes, would I put that in there as well?

- Yeah.

- Okay.

- In fact, I washed these and I would even put in some cherries.

- Oh, cherry tomatoes or grape.

- Or grape tomatoes, yeah.

- All right.

(blender whirring) - Because this is a smaller blender, I would have to do a couple batches.

And I'm just gonna put it on really low, like medium low, or just to get it bubbling.

- We're simmering it, right?

- Yes.

- Okay.

- And then we can get the meatballs in there.

I'm just gonna throw 'em in.

And I'm gonna have it on definitely a little bit...

There we go.

When it's up to a bubble, then I'll drop the heat.

So I'll just keep an eye on it.

- Please, Susie, tell me what you think is the most quintessential ingredient in a recipe.

- Well, I think my first thought is just to go to the garden, because, interestingly enough, all of the women in my life prepared the food, but all of the men were exceptional gardeners.

And my dad had the most amazing garden because his dad was a beautiful gardener.

So when I think of ingredients of my childhood and what drove me to my cooking today, I love fresh ingredients.

- Can you name even one that's a staple that you absolutely cannot live without.

- I'm gonna say rhubarb.

- Rhubarb!

- That was my favorite thing in the garden because we would just grab a stock and run around and eat it with a bag of sugar while we were playing.

- You eat it raw, right?

- Yep, right out of the garden, we didn't wash it.

We drank out of a hose.

(laughs) The good old days.

(laughing) Okay, so we have potatoes, they've been riced.

And I seasoned the water with salt.

A little more salt.

It's kinda like when you make pasta, I put a little bit of a well in the center and then I'll crack my two eggs.

Just want the egg to be in the center so that I can incorporate everything.

So this is a 16 ounces of whole milk ricotta.

I'm putting in half, so about eight ounces.

- Okay.

- Now we need a little Parmesan.

We don't need a lot.

I put a little bit of fresh herbs and then...

This is the thing about pasta, I'll tell you right now, I started with a cup, but it's all about the feel.

Now the key thing is I need to incorporate the egg.

- [Sharon] Feel like I'm getting introduced into a family secret here.

(Susie gasps) - Look how easy, there's probably five ingredients in here.

The hard part that people are intimidated about pasta is they don't think they'll get the consistency right.

But it's really just all about the feel.

Now that the sauce is going, I'm gonna put half a can of tomato paste.

It just gives it a little more thickness and then a little more depth.

I'm just gonna leave that again, and the paste will do its thing.

So now we're ready for the gnocchi.

Just think about making play dough when you were a kid and you're gonna make a long snake.

So check this out, this is how nana did it.

She wouldn't use a pastry cutter, she'd just use a knife.

But I just.

Hello!

And here's what she'd do.

Bloop.

And she would do it, I bet, five times faster than I'm doing it right now.

And that little crease captures the sauce.

You know how some people do the board and they make the fancy creases, that's also that the sauce traps in.

But nana just did 'em like that, and that's it.

And then we lay 'em out and we freeze 'em.

Yep.

So go watch.

Go down and roll.

Down and roll.

There you go.

- All right, I have to try this pastry cutter, Susie.

Okay.

Oh my gosh, you're totally- - Is this- - Just sink.

Small.

- I'm not as fast as you.

(gentle music) - Perfect.

We'll boil 'em up and serve 'em.

You just wanna be careful that you don't burn yourself.

We'll use a slotted spoon.

Now right when I drop them I wanna move 'em around a little bit.

Then we'll just wait for a few minutes and then off- - One is floating already, does that mean it's done?

- When they float they're pretty much ready.

Gonna take some sauce.

I'll even actually use a ladle to get enough in.

My nana would just...

This is how she'd serve the gnocchi.

So she'd serve the gnocchi on the table and then we would plate and then we would add more sauce.

I'm gonna show you guys.

- They're beautiful.

- Thank you.

- [Sharon] Yeah, I see how the sauce is in there, in little bowls.

- Exactly.

I'm channeling nana.

- Yeah, and here's the finale.

Okay, that's... (Susie laughing) Oh my gosh, that look so good.

- Little herbs.

- Okay, a little bit of herbs, a little dressing on there, garnish.

- I usually don't let someone try before I do, so let's just (indistinct).

- We can do it together.

Mm.

Mm-hmm.

- And then when nana was ready, when it was time to eat, then it would be, (speaking in foreign language).

- What does that mean?

- (speaking in foreign language) means come eat.

- (speaking in foreign language) (both speaking in foreign language) (upbeat elegant music) - How does it make you feel when your family and friends eat your food that you prepare?

- That's my favorite part, really, it is, because I think that's what I get from what I observed through my childhood is we weren't big on cooking in the kitchen, but we could be in the kitchen and see everything, and that's what I love today, is cooking for anybody and everybody in all kinds of situations, and for them to be fed and to feel good and to smile and say, "Thank you so much.

", and, "It was so good.

", that's the best.

This whole experience, to be able to cook for my town, and I'm confident that the people here know how much I love being from here, so I would say to Buhl, thank you.

And all of the Buhl community, they made me who I am today.

(singing in foreign language) (bright music) - Are you excited to meet the other cooks in the competition?

- I'm so curious.

I think we're all gonna love each other's creations, so I think, hopefully, we'll all just think whoever wins, we all won.

But, with that said, I want them to lovingly know that they don't have a prayer.

(laughs) (gentle bright music) (singing in foreign language) - Bringing a community together with family recipes, Susie knows the value of sharing a good meal.

But this isn't the last we'll see of Susie either, she'll be back for our competition, and I know her sense of humor will liven up the greenhouse.

Wanna make Susie's gnocchi, red sauce and meatballs at home?

We've gotcha covered, this recipe and all the others from this show will be posted on our website.

Sharon and Susie also made a stuffed pepper soup for our companion series, "Just a Bite", only on Instagram.

It's posted now, so go check it out.

We've got one more cook to meet, or is it two?

You'll have to come back next time to find out, but here's a sneak peek.

- Oh, this is beautiful.

(bright music) (blender whirring) - It is, there's something about this town that is just very magical.

But if I had only a few minutes, I would say, it's like...

There's a sign out front, when you first drive in, and (chuckles) I would say to my friends, it says welcome to Buhl, (hiccup's) home of abundant water, land, (hiccup's) and good people.

That's Buhl.

No matter who you are, you're welcome here.

I promise you, I've seen it.

You're you're welcome in Buhl.

- Wow, I am absolutely stuffed.

From hobby gnocchi to getting to know the community of Buhl, this is definitely one for the books.

Are you excited for the competition?

- Yes, I can't wait, because I was thinking about what is one of my favorite dishes that my godmother made?

Tona was born and raised here, so she's like a pillar of this community, and she only passed a few years ago, full Italian, she was an exceptional cook, she could cook blindfolded.

And so I thought of an idea for a hot dish to bring Tona to life.

And I don't think I've ever created a dish with more love than this one, so I'm super excited.