Ingredienti

Hazan

Although Marcella died, I truly wanted her to live forever. My wish will not come true, but her husband's publication of her last book will temper my grief.

Ingredienti feels like a work of love. Her husband is dedicated to remaining true to Marcella's voice, her direct approach to allowing the ingredients to speak clearly for themselves.The maxim, "less is more," becomes increasingly inspirational with each page turned.

Although this is not a cookbook, it does include descriptions of meals created with the ingredients. No exact measurements, just an organic orientation to creating simple meals with the ingredients.

Marcella and her husband guide the reader through the market, train the eye as to what represents the highest quality. At times, the reader is guided to internet sources. She combines the old world with the new.

This is a book that deserves a place of respect, along with her Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking.

Although she died in 2013, Marcella Hazan leaves a legacy to today’s cooks in the upcoming publication of a book based on the handwritten notebooks filled with her thoughts on how to select, and how to use, the very best ingredients for classic Italian cooking.

Her husband and longtime collaborator, Victor, translated these notebooks from her native Italian and finished writing and editing them to produce Ingredienti: Marcella’s Guide to the Market. The book is illustrated with lovely sketches, lively green line drawings of various ingredients.

It’s not the most comprehensive primer on produce, but it is a book that should appeal to both new and accomplished cooks – and both home and professional ones – and some tips and tricks are unique. I particularly appreciate Marcella’s lessons on protecting such ingredients as garlic and onions in an excessively hot and humid climate, lessons that I have not found in other how-to cookbooks written by those lucky enough to live under food-friendly weather conditions.

Ingredienti is not a recipe book. Marcella does describe her preferences for preparing each ingredient, but you won’t find specific quantities or detailed instructions, simply ideas for how to prepare ingredients for cooking – or serving – and most of all for a guide to select each at the peak of perfection. The writing is casual and very, very personal – as if the “godmother of Italian cooking” were your very own godmother, sitting with you in her kitchen and sharing a lifetime of lessons over cups of espresso.

The result is a book that is a joy to read. Marcella held very strong opinions, some I share and some I do not. I absolutely agree that one must know how to shop before one can know how to cook, but I don’t share her disdain for red and sweet onions. Still, it is her perspective that makes the book so well worth reading no matter how much you do, or do not, know about picking produce and pantry staples and whether you do, or do not, share her likes and dislikes.

Each chapter is essentially an essay on each ingredient, and one that combines both information and instruction. These make the book ideal for a leisurely read . . . but the writing may tempt you to race right through from beginning to end, as I did. Either way, enjoy!

Description: From the inimitable woman who popularized Italian cuisine in America, Marcella Hazan’s simple and elegant manual on how to shop for the best ingredients and prepare the most delicious meals is a must-have for every home cook.

When Marcella Hazan died in 2013, the world mourned the passing of the “Godmother of Italian cooking.” But her legacy lives on, through her cookbooks and recipes, and in the handwritten notebooks filled with her thoughts on how to select the best ingredients—Ingredienti. Her husband and longtime collaborator Victor has translated and transcribed these vignettes on how to buy and what to do with the fresh produce used in Italian cooking, the elements of an essential pantry, and salumi (literally, salted meat).

Before you know how to cook, you must know how to shop. From Artichokes to Zucchini, Anchovies to Ziti, Ingredienti offers succinct and compelling advice on how to choose vegetables, pasta, olive oil, Parmigiano Reggiano, prosciutto, and all of the key elements of Marcella’s classic meals. Organic isn’t necessarily best, boxed pasta can be better than fresh. Marcella’s authoritative wisdom and surprising tips will change the way you cook. Her clear, practical guidance in acquiring the components of good cooking is helpful wherever you choose to shop—in supermarkets, farmers’ markets, specialty food stores, or online.

Based on 60 years of almost daily visits to the market to choose the ingredients of that day’s meal, Ingredienti is a life’s work, distilled—an expression of Marcella’s judgments, advice, and suggestions. Uncomplicated and precise, this volume will be essential to home cooks eager to produce meals in the same delicious style Marcella was the first to introduce to America.

About the authors: Marcella Hazan (1924-2013) was born in Cesenatico, a fishing village on the northern Adriatic shore of Italy. She studied for a career in the sciences and received two doctoral degrees from the University of Ferrara in Emilia-Romagna. In 1955 she married Victor Hazan, an Italian-born American, and moved with him to New York, where she began teaching Italian cooking classes in her apartment. In 1973 she published her first cookbook, The Classic Italian Cookbook, which introduced Americans to authentic Italian food. Her cooking schools in Italy draw students from around the world. Hazan was the recipient of two Lifetime Achievement Awards (from the James Beard Foundation in 2000, and the IACP in 2004) and a knighthood from her own country. She was the author of five additional classic cookbooks and a memoir, including Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking ($20.99, Kindle, and $20.65, hardcover, both USD), Marcella Cucina ($31.29 USD, hardcover), Marcella's Italian Kitchen ($19.90 USD paperback) and Amarcord: Marcella Remembers ($12.99 USD, Kindle; $14.47 USD, paperback).

Victor Hazan Marcella’s lifelong collaborator and writing partner, is an authority on Italian wine and food. He is the author of Italian Wine. He lives in Longboat Key, Florida.

NOTE: Sis received a complimentary advanced reading copy from Simon and Schuster via NetGalley with the expectation that she would write a review reflecting her own opinions and only her own opinions. And this she has done.

Enjoyable, informative and well written.

Before you cook, you must first know how to shop and if your own parents have not taught you this, let Marcella Hazan step in for them. And even if you consider yourself a veteran in the market and the kitchen, I can guarantee there’s a few tricks you still don’t know about. Ingredienti, co-written and edited by her husband Victor after her death a few years ago is Marcella’s last gift to her fans. And what a gift this simple and elegant manual on how to shop for the best ingredients and prepare the most delicious meals is.

For over sixty years, Marcella Hazan made almost daily visits to the market in order to choose the ingredients of that day’s meal. Ingredienti is underpinned by her belief that in order to cook well, one must first develop affection for ingredients to the degree of seeing them as characters in a wider culinary narrative. There needs to be respect for one’s store cupboard which will then translate into greater confidence in the kitchen.

Ingredients are organized from A to Z and the book also includes sections such as how to store vegetables so they keep well and how the storage time indicates what kind of preparation and recipe they can be used for. The chapter on artichokes is a particular joy in this respect. There’s more advice about how to choose the best pasta and cheese, how to find good olive oil and even guidance on breadcrumbs, that most modest of ingredients which Marcella knew to be transformative when added to a dish of cardoon or baked endive. Her advice applies as much to the large British supermarkets as it does to our tiny farmers markets and the sumptuous markets we explore when on holiday.

The best food writers are able to magic up a conversation between themselves and their readers. Nigella has this ability and so does Marcella. It is to her husband Victors credit that he can continue this dialogue seamlessly. Her legacy lives on through this, her last prose book and the her wisdom which is now ours, to hand down to our own children.

This slim volume is so easily readable that I devoured it in less than 12 hours - a few hours waiting in the airport for my flight, a few hours on the plane, and then less than an hour to finish it. It took me a few hours of thinking to figure out what made it so easy to read: it was the friendly voice of the author. Even though Victor Hazan translated, compiled and edited his wife's many journals on the subject of ingredients, her own down to earth voice shone through. It was like listening to an Italian grandmother impart her innermost culinary secrets.

The book is basically divided into three sections: produce, the essential pantry, salumi. Across those three sections, it covers the breadth of ingredients that you would expect to find in Italian cuisine, including tomatoes, pasta, rice, herbs, spices, and Italian cured meats. Within each section, the material is arranged alphabetically by ingredient name. These chapters can include the origin, history and ancient use of the ingredient, the modern use of the ingredient, how the ingredient is grown or made, what to look for when buying the ingredient, how to clean the ingredient, how to cook with the ingredient, and how to store the ingredient. When included, recipes were given to highlight the versatility or simplicity of an ingredient. Recipes were given in a breezy paragraph format: take a little of this, add a little of that, cook it like this, serve it like that.

I recommended this book to my father, whose mother was born in Sicily, because the overarching philosophy of the book aligns with his culinary philosophy. Choose the best ingredients and cook simply to let the ingredients shine. The advice and themes that were familiar to me in the book resonated with me because I had heard them from him since I was old enough to "sous chef" for him in the kitchen as he cooked for large family holidays.

I bought this book for a thirty-something single girlfriend of mine who wants to learn more about cooking good healthy foods for herself. I felt it would offer the perfect balance to The Vegetable Butcher by Cara Mangini, which is heavily laden with instructional photographs of how to prep a universe of vegetables and offers one or two fairly complex recipes for each vegetable. The produce section of Ingredienti boils down the selection, preparation and cooking of vegetables to only the most necessary basics. It will provide her with a good place to start, and the ability to confidently look at The Vegetable Butcher if she needs more details.

Overall, I am extremely grateful for having read this book. I look forward to the opportunity to try a few of the recipes offered within, although I have yet to do so. When I do, I will update this review.