You don’t have to have Irish blood to have fun on St. Patrick’s Day, just a love and appreciation for Gaelic tradition that includes some awesome music, toe-stepping dance and a lively pub culture.

The March 17 holiday falls on a Tuesday this year, but you’ll find a plethora of bar crawls and whiskey tastings throughout this weekend.

This time of year also renews interest in and appreciation for traditional Irish eats, which include everything from smoked salmon and hearty lamb stews to more economical, pork-based staples like white and black pudding; pan-fried boxty; brown and white soda breads; and colcannon, a rustic and filling mash of boiled potatoes and cabbage or kale.

To understand the scope of the celebration, just look at the numbers. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 30.5 million U.S. residents claimed Irish ancestry in 2023, 9.1% of the total population. In Allegheny County, more than 207,000 people claim Irish heritage, which puts it in the top 10 counties in the U.S.

Irish food sometimes gets a bad rap for being unapologetically bland and relying too heavily on root-based brassicas, tubers (which were introduced to Ireland in the late 16th century) and dairy. But really, is that such a bad thing? Cooked with the right seasonings and protein, cabbage and potatoes in a soup or stew can actually be pretty tasty. Both ingredients are also easy to find in just about any grocery store or farmers market for not too much money — no small thing these days, when feeding a family on a budget can feel challenging.

And if you pair said soup or stew with a homemade bread slathered in butter? It might be a humble dinner, but it also will be a good one.

To celebrate the day honoring St. Patrick, who spread Christianity through Ireland in the 5th century, we are dishing up two easy-to-make traditional Irish breads. First, we have a slightly sweet soda bread studded with raisins that has a long family history (my husband’s granny brought the recipe with her when she immigrated to New York from Ireland in the early 1900s) and a foolproof, no-knead Irish brown bread from the famous Ballymaloe Cookery School in County Cork.

Either make an excellent dunker for a traditional Irish coddle pulled from The Irish Times in Dublin. Historically made to use up leftovers, the grab-and-go soup (or is it a stew?) brings together hearty pork sausage and salty bacon, carrots, onions and potatoes in a broth seasoned with fresh thyme. The one-pot dish is simple, both with ingredients and the effort it takes to prepare. But it really delivers a hot bowl of comfort on a gray day in March.

Granny’s Irish Soda Bread

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No matter how many times I make this family favorite, I never get sick of it. My husband and I don’t agree, however, if it should be made with or without raisins.

I say, if you’re going to serve it with soup, leave the raisins out; if you’re eating it for breakfast with butter, pile them in.

The recipe was handed down from my mother-in-law, Catherine, who learned to make it as a child from her mother, Nellie Kerrigan Foy, who was born in Bundoran, County Donegal, in 1892.

2 cups unsifted all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons butter, softened

1 cup seedless raisins, half dark and half golden, optional

Approximately 1 cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease cookie sheet.

In large bowl sift flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Cut in softened butter with pastry blender or fork until it looks like fine crumbs. Add raisins. Add buttermilk, starting with a little less than a cup, and mix with fork only until dry ingredients are moistened, adding additional milk as needed to get the right consistency.

Turn out on lightly floured board and knead gently about 1 minute. Shape in a ball and place on cookie sheet; flatten into a 7-inch circle (dough will be about 1½ inches thick) and press a large floured knife into center halfway through to the bottom. Repeat at right angle to form a cross.

Bake 30-40 minutes or until top is golden brown and loaf sounds hollow when tapped.

Remove to wire rack to cool. Optional: Melt another tablespoon of butter and pour over the top.

Makes 1 loaf.

— Catherine Foy McKay

Ballymaloe Brown Yeast Bread

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This is a perfect yeast loaf for novice bakers because it only has to rise once. (I used dried yeast instead of fresh yeast.)

Don't skimp on the sesame seeds — they add a great nutty crunch. Delicious right out of the oven with (preferably Irish) butter, but just as good the next morning as toast.

3¾ cups whole-wheat flour OR

3⅓ cup whole-wheat flour plus ⅓ cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

2 cups water at room temperature, divided

1 scant teaspoon molasses

¾-1 ounce fresh yeast

Sunflower oil, for greasing pan

Sesame seeds for topping, optional

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Mix flour with salt in a large mixing bowl. Measure out ½ cup of water into a small bowl, stir in molasses and crumble in yeast. Set aside in a warm place for 5 minutes to allow the yeast to start to work.

Meanwhile, grease a 5- by-8-inch loaf pan with oil. Check to see if yeast is rising — it should have a creamy and slightly frothy appearance on top.

Give the yeast a quick stir and pour over the flour, along with the remaining water. Mix well to form a loose, wet dough; the mixture should be too wet to knead. (I had to add additional water.)

Put the mixture into the greased pan, and sprinkle the top with sesame seeds, if using.

Transfer the pan to a warm place and cover the top with a clean towel to prevent a skin from forming. Set aside for 10-20 minutes, depending on the temperature of your kitchen, or until the bread rises just to the top of pan.

The bread will continue rising in the oven. (This is called “oven spring.”) Don't allow it to rise above the top of the pan before it goes into the oven or it will continue to rise and flow over the top.

Bake the bread in hot oven for 20 minutes, then reduce heat to 400 degrees and bake for another 45-50 minutes, or until it looks nicely browned and sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom.

If you like a crisper bread, remove it from pan about 10 minutes before the end of cooking and put it back into the oven to crisp all around. Cool on wire rack.

Makes 1 loaf.

— “30 Years at Ballymaloe” by Darina Allen

Dublin Coddle

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Every Irishman or woman has his or her own variation of a Dublin coddle, but this hearty, one-pot meal always combines four Irish staples: potatoes, onions, bacon and pork sausage. It is sometimes simmered in a light broth made with Guinness Stout. I used Italian sausage.

12 ounces bratwurst or mild Italian sausage (around 3 fat links)

2 tablespoons olive oil

6 slices unsmoked bacon, chopped

1 onion, peeled and sliced

4 cups diced potatoes

4 medium carrots, peeled and thickly sliced

4 cups water or chicken stock

Salt and pepper, to taste

3 sprigs of thyme, leaves picked

2 handfuls of finely shredded kale or cabbage

Remove the skins from the sausages and roll them into little meatballs.

Heat two tablespoons of olive oil in a wide, heavy-based pan. Fry the sausage meatballs until they get a little color, then set them aside but don’t wipe out the pan.

Add diced bacon and fry until crispy at the edges.

Add onion to the pan and sauté for a minute or so until it softens.

Add potato and carrots and return the sausage to the pan. Pour in the stock, season with salt, pepper and thyme. Simmer gently for 25 minutes, then add finely shredded kale or cabbage. Simmer for a further 5 minutes until the potatoes are just cooked through.

Taste for seasoning, then ladle into bowls.

Serves 4-6

— adapted from The Irish Times

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