When I think about how I like to eat, I think about a big table centered by a platter heaped with ribbons of fresh pasta, glistening with Marcella’s Hazan’s beautiful reddish orange tomato sauce. I think about big hunks of Parmigiano Reggiano with their crystalline topography ready to be grated over that pasta, and about bottles rustic Italian wine without the polish and pomp that has overtaken so many of the country’s producers. I think about sharing simple food, beautifully prepared and I hear Marcella Hazan’s voice in my head. I recall hearing her say “The food make people to be together”.
She never quite did master the English language, but she really didn’t need to. She was plenty expressive.
Marcella’s Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking is a guide to the way we should be eating and drinking. This isn’t about expressing a grand cuisine or imprinting food with academic technique. It’s about as far away from modernist cuisine or chef-driven cooking that one can get. Her legendary tomato sauce has 4 ingredients: tomato, onion, butter, and salt. The book is full of food suited for a weeknight family meal. Therein lies the soul of Italy. The food is about the ingredients, the regionality, and the act of gathering and eating as an act of communal enjoyment. Marcella’s book is a master class of sorts—a study that reduces Italian food to its most essential simplicity in order to express its most beautiful personality. If you don’t already own a copy of Hazan’s book, you can find it for sale here, at Kitchen Arts & Letters.
If there are two recipes that most embody this combination for me it would have to be her Tomato Sauce with Onion and Butter, and her Parmesan Risotto.
Tomato Sauce with Onion and Butter
Certainly the four ingredient tomato sauce should be a part of everybody’s repertoire. I’ve lost count of the number of people I’ve turned on to this recipe. Almost all of them start out skeptical and end up converted. The glossy sauce really gets to the essence of the tomato, with an incredible depth of flavor that seems virtually impossible given its simplicity. Don’t be afraid to use a good canned Italian plum tomato, but make sure you pick up very good pasta. My go-to wine for this sauce is always a very good—but very rustic—expression of Chianti Classico.
Parmesan Risotto
There are three keys to maximizing this silky, rich, soulful risotto. The first is the broth. Either make it yourself or use a high-quality organic beef broth. The second is patience—it takes some time to make. Don’t rush it. The third key is to serve it hot—immediately as it is finished. Make sure your wine glasses are pre-filled, and push the salad plates out of the way. Now you should rush! The only thing standing between you and your risotto should be an extra shaving of Parmigiano Reggiano. Once that’s melting into the arborio rice dig in. My go-to wine for this risotto is high-toned Nebbiolo from a classic Alto Piemonte producer like Ioppa.
