Proletarian Delights

There’s a wonderful scene in Ernst Lubitsch’s 1939 film Ninotchka, in which Greta Garbo, playing the humorless Soviet functionary Ninotchka, asks a Parisian cabbie for a restaurant recommendation. He directs her to Père Mathieu’s, a working-class joint, where she places her order without even consulting the menu. The restaurant owner – the eponymous Père Mathieu – is aghast. The screenplay (written by Charles Brackett, Billy Wilder, and Walter Reisch) registers their hilarious exchange: 

Ninotchka: Raw beets and carrots.

Mathieu: [pleasantly] Madame, this is a restaurant, not a meadow.

Undaunted, Ninotchka offers up her philosophy on life. Their conversation essentially pits the Spartan Soviet way of life against the stereotypically French appreciation of fine food:

Ninotchka: Bring me something simple. I never think about food.

Mathieu: [horrified] Madame, if you don’t think about food, what do you think about?

Ninotchka: The future of the common people.

Mathieu: That’s also a question of food.

At this point in the plot, Ninotchka is joined by Count Léon, who has surreptitiously followed her to the restaurant. He explains Père Mathieu’s reaction:

You insulted him, you know that? You hurt his feelings. It was just like telling a musician that you don’t like music. Why, that good old man believes in food just as you believe in Karl Marx. You can’t go around hurting people like that, Comrade Yakushova. [He moves a chair closer to Ninotchka.] But you can make it up to him. Do you know how? By eating everything that he brings you with relish, by drinking everything with gusto, by having a good time for the first time in your natural life!

A bit later, at a tony club, Léon sets out to introduce Ninotchka to the finer things in life by offering her her first taste of champagne. Also present is Duchess Swana, who is so dismissive of Ninotchka before she has even appeared, that she cautions her friends not to mock “that female Bolshevik” when she “sucks her soup and drinks out of her finger bowl”—as every ill-bred Bolshevik must inevitably do. Imagine the Duchess’s surprise when Ninotchka appears on Léon’s arm, dressed to the nines and ready to be initiated into the high life. As Ninotchka raises a glass to her lips, she muses:

Ninotchka: It’s funny to look back. I was brought up on goat’s milk. I had a ration of vodka in the army, and now champagne.

Leon: From goats to grapes. That’s drinking in the right direction.

Taking beets and carrots from raw to cooked is also a move in the right direction. Try the recipe above. It is so tasty that even a humorless commissar would approve.

Sweet and Sour Beets

Peel the beets and carrots. Grate them together with the onion (this is most easily done with the shredding disk of a food processor).

In a large frying pan, heat the olive oil. Add the shredded vegetables, mixing well. Sauté the vegetables over medium-high heat for 10 to 12 minutes, until just barely tender. Stir in the tomato sauce, vinegar, and sugar. 

Continue to cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until all the moisture evaporates, 20 to 25 minutes. Transfer to a dish and chill before serving.

Serves 8 to 10.

Adapted from A Taste of Russia

Basic Tomato Sauce

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 large onion, coarsely chopped

1 large clove garlic, crushed

1½ pounds ripe tomatoes, quartered (or substitute one 28-ounce can tomatoes, drained)

1 small green pepper

1 teaspoon salt

Freshly ground black pepper to taste

½ teaspoon dried basil

A few drops of hot pepper sauce

1 tablespoon butter

1 tablespoon flour

1 tablespoon tomato paste

½ teaspoon sugar

Saute the onion and garlic in the olive oil until soft but not brown. Stir in the tomatoes, green pepper, salt, black pepper, basil and hot pepper sauce. Cover the pan and simmer for 30 minutes. Then put the mixture through a food mill (if you don’t mind a less silky sauce you can simply blend it in a food processor).

In a saucepan, melt the butter. Stir in the flour, then cook for a few minutes. Stir in the pureed tomato mixture, then add the tomato paste and sugar. Simmer for 10 minutes.

Makes 2 cups.