In colder climates, breakfast is hardly lightweight - includes recipes - Chefs of the West

Sunset, April, 1991

In many parts of the world, breakfast is a lightweight affair, designed primarily to wake you up and fuel you until you have a substantial lunch. In France and Italy, for instance, breakfasts feature just bread and coffee, but the bread comes in many forms and flavors and the coffee is strong enough to float a nail.

In colder climates, and especially among hardworking rural folk, breakfast is heartier, with meat, cheese, eggs, potatoes, or all the above added to the basics. The German farmer's breakfast (Bauernfriihstiick) is a super-omelet with eggs, potatoes, onions, and bacon. To Pennsylvania Dutch farmers, breakfast scarcely differs from lunch or dinner and very likely will include dessert.

From chilly Juneau, John St. Martin sends us a breakfast taco that will wake you up and keep you awake until lunch maybe even dinner. It has the sustaining elements of a German breakfast-though with a lighter touch-and the warmth of Mexican spices. Breakfast Tacos

  1 medium-size (about 1/2 lb.) russet
       potato
   1 pound bulk pork sausage
   1 small onion, chopped
   1 teaspoon each chili powder and
       ground cumin
     Cayenne
   1 large egg
   6 flour tortillas (7 to 8 in. wide)
   1 cup (1/4 lb.) shredded sharp cheddar
       cheese
     Homemade or prepared salsa
     Unflavored nonfat yogurt or sour
       cream

In a 1- to 1 1/2-quart pan, cook potato, covered, in boiling water to cover until tender when pierced, 30 to 35 minutes. Drain. When cool enough to handle, peel and cut into 1/2-inch cubes.

Into a 10- to 12-inch frying pan over medium-high heat, crumble sausage and add onion, chili powder, and cumin, then sprinkle lightly with cayenne. Stir often until browned, 10 to 15 minutes. Spoon out and discard fat. Add potato and let cook 2 to 3 minutes. Beat egg to blend, pour into pan, and stir until it is set. Stack and wrap tortillas in foil; place in a 350' oven until hot, about 10 minutes. (Or wrap in paper towels and heat in a microwave oven on full power-100 percent-until warm, about 2 minutes.)

Spoon equal amounts of the hot sausage mixture down the center of each tortilla, top with cheese, and roll to enclose filling. Accompany with salsa and yogurt to add to taste. Makes 6 servings. Per serving: 323 cal.; 16 g protein; 20 g fat; 20 g carbo.; 739 mg sodium; 85 mg chol. Spaghetti squash has been around for a long time, but its popularity is fairly recent. Years ago, it skulked in the rear sections of seed catalogs along with other suspect novelties like the bush huckleberry (a sort of nightshade, whose only virtue was not being poisonous) and the chufa (whose imperishable nut-like tubers made it a noxious lawn weed). Spaghetti squash showed up as an object resembling an elongated football cut in half and spilling a great tangle of pasta onto its plate. The representation was not a photograph, but the sort of over-inked steel engraving that makes everything seem improbable as well as shabby. A few years ago, this squash made a reappearance. With diligent (and honest) promotion, it has become a familiar sight on produce counters. It does not, of course, contain real spaghetti, but the tender-crisp strands look like pasta and have its genius for blending with sauces. Robert Martin dresses it with a classic Italian sauce based on sausage, tomatoes and tomato paste, herbs, and wine. Spaghetti Squash with Sausage Sauce

3 to 4 pounds spaghetti squash
1 pound mild Italian sausage
1 medium-size onion, sliced thin
1 clove garlic, minced or pressed
1/4 cup finely chopped parsley
2 medium-size (about 1/2 lb. total)
     Roma-type tomatoes, cored and
    chopped
1/2 teaspoon each dry basil leaves and
     dry oregano leaves
1 tablespoon tomato paste or catsup
1 cup dry white wine
3/4 cup shredded provolone cheese

Rinse squash, then pierce shell with a sharp fork in 10 to 12 places. Place squash on a paper towel in a microwave oven; cook on full power (100 percent) for 14 to 20 minutes, turning squash over every 4 minutes. Loosely cover the squash and set it aside. Meanwhile, remove sausage casings and crumble meat into a 10- to 12-inch frying pan over medium-high heat. Add onion and garlic; stir often until sausage is browned, 10 to 15 minutes. Discard drippings. Add to meat the parsley, tomatoes, basil, oregano, tomato paste, and wine. Stir, then bring to a boil on high heat. Reduce heat and boil gently, uncovered, until most of the liquid has evaporated, about 10 minutes; stir often. While sauce simmers, press squash shell; if shell does not give easily to pressure, cook in microwave oven at full power for 1 1/2 minutes at a time until it does. Cut squash in half lengthwise; scoop out and discard seeds. Pull strands free with a fork, leaving them in the shell halves. Evenly top with sauce, then sprinkle with cheese. Heat squash halves in microwave oven on full power just until cheese melts, 3 to 4 minutes. Makes 4 to 6 servings. Per serving: 296cal.; 16g protein; 19g fat; 16g carbo.; 688 mg sodium; 53 mg chol. Most cuisines worth investigating have in their repertoires recipes for what might generically be called "things in broth." The Chinese have their won ton, the Russians pelmeni, Spain and Mexico albondigas, and Jewish tables kreplach. The Italians bear the palm away with a host of lovely morsels agnollotti and tortellini, for instance-luxuriating in steaming broths of chicken, beef, or veal. Less renowned are gnocchi, for which dumplings is an inadequate, even stingy, translation. Usually served with a sauce, these delicacies are entirely at home in a rich broth. John Macchia has drawn inspiration from all these Italian morsels and perhaps also from passatelli, an egg, cheese, and bread crumb mixture pressed through a sieve in strands into hot broth. The cheese puffs in his soup have the shape of gnocchi and the ingredients of passatelli-with significant alterations. Cheese Puff Soup