Marcella Hazan died just a few days after I wrote about her tomato sauce and how she was the Italian nonna (grandma) I never had.
Who was Marcella Hazan? For a chronology of her long life and partial list of her many accomplishments, check out Kim Severson’s article in the New York Times. In brief, she was an amazing and opinionated woman. Hazan knew what worked when it came to cooking. She didn’t change her views or her cooking to garner favor or become part of a popular movement.
Before it was fashionable, Marcella Hazan advocated using the best ingredients prepared simply to create home cooked meals that will knock your socks off.
My copies of her cookbooks are two yellowed paperbacks from my mom. The Classic Italian Cookbook and More Classic Italian Cooking have small print and no photographs. They certainly don’t look like much, sitting on my bookshelf alongside bigger and more beautiful tomes. But I treasure them. And I’m much more likely to consult them than some of my fancier cookbooks with shiny pages and color photographs.
Although Hazan provides detailed explanations, suggestions, and commentary in her cookbooks, she writes the way she cooks – simply. I never wonder what she meant or wish that she had provided a clearer explanation of a technique I’ve never tried before.
I may not always agree with her and don’t live up to her standards. However, I’d much rather forgive myself and find her recipe, when I need to know how to prepare a classic dish in her repertoire.
In The Classic Italian Cookbook, she says “I can’t imagine anyone with a serious interest in food using anything but homemade mayonnaise.” Oh well. I have bottled mayonnaise in my refrigerator and have not made homemade in decades. Still her recipe for the homemade variety is appealing. It’s sensible and her tips so helpful that I may actually try to make it again.
Where others try to impress with fancy ingredients and complicated recipes, she always stayed true to her core philosophy. If you’ve ever tasted her Bolognese-style meat sauce, you know that unpretentious can also be incomparable. Simple does not always mean quick. That sauce simmers for a minimum of 3½ – 4 hours. Then again, she doesn’t do slow for its own sake. Her recipe for pasta with tomato and fresh basil sauce takes less than 30 minutes.
I do not aspire to be her. But I want to spread her philosophy on the “art of eating.”
“The finest accomplishments of the home cook are not reserved like the good silver and china for special occasions or for impressing guests, but are offered daily for the pleasure and happiness of the family group.”
The family “group” can be a crowd gathering at the dinner table, or two, or even just the cook. Homemade food served with love provides much more than vitamins and minerals.
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