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Published: 2004
Category: Food and Wine
There you are, in a restaurant that features Northern Italian cooking, having a meal that's destined for your top ten list. But then the old nagging question arises: This is "simple" food. Why can't I cook like this at home?
You can. But like everything else, you must master some fundamentals.
Those fundamentals are overlooked in most cookbooks. Or the writer chooses not to share them, so you'll continue to be in awe of his/her prowess at his/her restaurant. Or they are elevated to a philosophy so complex you can never hope to master it.
The great appeal of Marcella Hazan's books is that she's no snob. (True, she disdains microwave ovens, but what serious cook has ever suggested that you can do more than make popcorn in these devices?) She wants to communicate. And she does.
Turn to "Fundamentals," on page seven. "Flavor, in Italian dishes, builds up from the bottom," she begins. "It is not a cover, it is a base. In a pasta sauce, a risotto, a fricassee, a stew, or a dish of vegetables, a foundation of flavor supports, lifts, points up the principal ingredients." The metaphor, she continues, is "architectural." And you suddenly flash back to your childhood and your afternoons playing with blocks, and a very big light bulb goes on.
The light bulb here involves techniques: battuto (chopped vegetables), soffritto (sauteeing the battuto) and insaporire (bestowing taste, by coating the key ingredients with the flavoring elements). Her explanation is clear. By page nine, you are ready to cook.
Marcella's