Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking: 30th Anniversary Edition: A Cookbook - Hardcover

Hazan, Marcella

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0593534328 ISBN 13: 9780593534328

Verlag: Knopf, 2022

Inhaltsangabe

A BON APPETIT BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR • A beautiful new edition of one of the most beloved cookbooks of all time, from “the Queen of Italian Cooking” (Chicago Tribune). A timeless collection of classic Italian recipes—from Basil Bruschetta to the only tomato sauce you’ll ever need (the secret ingredient: butter)—beautifully illustrated and featuring new forewords by Lidia Bastianich and Victor Hazan

“If this were the only cookbook you owned, neither you nor those you cooked for would ever get bored.” —Nigella Lawson

Marcella Hazan introduced Americans to a whole new world of Italian food. In this, her magnum opus, she gives us a manual for cooks of every level of expertise—from beginners to accomplished professionals.
 
In these pages, home cooks will discover:

   • Minestrone alla Romagnola
   • Tortelli Stuffed with Parsley and Ricotta
   • Risotto with Clams
   • Squid and Potatoes, Genoa Style
   • Chicken Cacciatora
   • Ossobuco in Bianco
   • Meatballs and Tomatoes
   • Artichoke Torta
   • Crisp-Fried Zucchini blossoms
   • Sunchoke and Spinach Salad
   • Chestnuts Boiled in Red Wine, Romagna Style
   • Polenta Shortcake with Raisins, Dried Figs, and Pine Nuts
   • Zabaglione
   • And much more

This is the go-to Italian cookbook for students, newlyweds, and master chefs, alike. Beautifully illustrated with line drawings throughout, Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking brings together nearly five hundred of the most delicious recipes from the Italian repertoire in one indispensable volume.
 
As the generations of readers who have turned to it over the years know (and as their spattered and worn copies can attest), there is no more passionate and inspiring guide to the cuisine of Italy.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

MARCELLA HAZAN was born in Cesenatico, a fishing village on the Adriatic in Emilia-Romagna, Italy’s foremost gastronomic region. After receiving her doctorates from the University of Ferrara in natural sciences and in biology, she lived and traveled throughout Italy. With the publication of The Classic Italian Cook Book and More Classic Italian Cooking (brought together in a single volume, Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking), her reputation as America’s premier teacher of Italian cooking spread throughout the country. Hazan died in 2013.

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

Risi e Bisi—Rice and Peas
On April 25, while all of Italy celebrates the day the country was liberated from Fascist and German rule, Venice celebrates its own most precious day, the birthday of St. Mark, patron saint of the republic that lasted 1,000 years. The tradition used to be that in honor of the apostle, on April 25th, one had one’s first taste of the dish that for the remainder of the spring season became the favorite of the Venetian table, risi e bisi, rice and peas.

No alternative to fresh peas is suggested in the ingredients list, because the essential quality of this dish resides in the flavor that only good, fresh peas possess. To make peas taste even sweeter, many Italian families add the pods to the pot. If you follow the instructions below that describe how to prepare the pods for cooking, you will acquire a technique that will be useful in many other recipes that call for peas. The other vital component of the flavor of risi e bisi is homemade broth, for which no satisfactory substitute can be recommended.

Risi e bisi is not risotto with peas. It is a soup, albeit a very thick one. Some cooks make it thick enough to eat with a fork, but it is at its best when it is just runny enough to require a spoon.

For 4 servings

2 pounds fresh, young peas, weighed with the pods
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter
2 tablespoons chopped onion
Salt
3 1/2 cups Basic Homemade Meat Broth
1 cup Italian rice
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
1/2 cup freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese

1. Shell the peas. Keep 1 cupful of the empty pods, selecting the crispest unblemished ones, and discard the rest.
2. Separate the two halves of each pod. Take a half pod, turning the glossy, inner, concave side that held the peas toward you. That side is lined by a tough, film-like membrane that you must pull off. Hold the pod with one hand, and with the other snap one end, pulling it down gently against the pod itself. You will find the thin membrane coming away without resistance. Because it is so thin, it is likely to break off before you have detached it entirely. Don’t fuss over it: Keep the skinned portion of the pod, snap the other end of the pod and try to remove the remaining section of membrane. Cut off and discard those parts of any pod that you have been unable to skin completely. It’s not necessary to end up with perfect whole pods since they will dissolve in the cooking anyway. Any skinned piece will serve the purpose, which is that of sweetening the soup. Add all the prepared pod pieces to the shelled peas, soak in cold water, drain, and set aside.
3. Put the butter and onion in a soup pot and turn on the heat to medium. Sauté the onion until it becomes colored a pale gold, then add the peas and the stripped-down pods, and a good pinch of salt to keep the peas green. Cook for 2 or 3 minutes, stirring to coat the peas well.
4. Add 3 cups of the broth, cover the pot, and adjust the heat so the broth bubbles at a slow, gentle boil for 10 minutes.
5. Add the rice and the remaining 1/2 cup of broth, stir, cover the pot again, and cook at a steady moderate boil until the rice is tender, but firm to the bite, about 20 minutes or so. Stir occasionally while the soup is cooking.
6. When the rice is done, stir in the parsley, then the grated Parmesan. Taste and correct for salt, then turn off the heat.
 
Orecchiette
Apulia, the region that extends over the entire heel and half the instep of the boot-shaped Italian peninsula, has a strong tradition of homemade pasta. Unlike the tortellini, tagliatelle, and lasagne of Emilia-Romagna, Apulian pasta is made with water instead of eggs, and the flour is mostly from their native hard-wheat variety, rather than from the soft wheat of the Emilian plain. Apulian dough is chewier, firmer, more rustic in texture. It is perfectly suited to the strongly accented sauces of the region.

The best-known shape of Apulian pasta is orecchiette, “little ears,” small disks of dough given their ear-like shape by a rotary pressure of the thumb. In the recipe that follows, hard-wheat flour is mixed with standard, unbleached flour to make a dough easier to work.

For 6 servings

1 cup semolina, the yellow flour from hard wheat, ground very fine
2 cups all-purpose unbleached flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
Up to 1 cup lukewarm water

1. Combine the semolina, the all-purpose flour, and salt on your work counter, making a mound with a well in the center. Add a few tablespoons of water at a time, incorporating it with the flour until it has absorbed as much water as it can without becoming stiff and dry. The consistency must not be sticky, but it can be somewhat softer than egg pasta.
2. Scrape away any crumbs of flour from the work surface, wash and dry your hands, and knead the mass for about 8 minutes, until it is smooth and elastic. 
3. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and let it rest about 15 minutes.
4. Pull off a ball about the size of a lemon from the kneaded mass, rewrapping the rest of the dough. Roll the ball into a sausage-like roll about 1/2 inch thick. Slice it into very thin disks, about 1/16 inch, if you are able. Place a disk in the cupped palm of one hand, and with a rotary pressure of the thumb of the other hand, make a hollow in the center, broadening the disk to a width of about 1 inch. The shape should resemble a shallow mushroom cap, slightly thicker at its edges than at its center. Repeat the procedure until you have used up all the dough.
5. If you are not using the orecchiette immediately, spread them out to dry on clean, dry cloth towels, turning them over from time to time. When they are fully dry, after about 24 hours, you can store them in a box in a kitchen cupboard for a month or more. They are cooked like any other pasta but will take longer than conventional fresh egg pasta.
 
Mantovana—Olive Oil Bread
If you follow the eastern-bound course of the Po river, Italy’s largest, as it slices much of northern Italy in two, with parts of Lombardy and the Veneto on its left bank, and Emilia-Romagna on its right, you will be traveling across some of the country’s best bread territory, once studded with flour mills powered by the river’s currents.

These handsome loaves, notable for their fine, crisp, tasty crust, and soft crumb are popular on both the Emilia and the Lombardy side, but take their name from the ancient ducal town of Mantua, in Lombardy.

2 mantovane loaves

2 teaspoons active dry yeast
2 cups lukewarm water
1/4 teaspoon sugar
About 5 cups unbleached flour
2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
A baking stone
A baker’s peel (paddle), 16 by 14 inches, or a cookie sheet or large piece of stiff cardboard
Cornmeal
A pastry brush

1. Dissolve the yeast completely in a large bowl by stirring it into 1/4 cup lukewarm water with the 1/4 teaspoon sugar added. When dissolved, in 10 minutes or less, add 2 cups flour and 3/4 cup water, and mix thoroughly with a wooden spoon.
2. If kneading by hand: Pour the contents of the bowl onto a lightly floured work surface, and knead steadily for about 10 minutes. Push forward against the dough, using the heel of your palm and keeping your fingers bent. Fold the mass in half, give it a quarter turn, press hard against it with the heel of your palm again, and repeat the operation. Make sure that you keep turning the ball of dough always in the same direction, either clockwise or counterclockwise as you prefer. Add a little more flour, if you find it necessary to make the dough workable, and dust your hands with flour if they stick to the dough. Knead until the dough is no longer sticky, but smooth and elastic. It should spring back when poked with a finger. Shape it into a...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Knopf
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2022
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0593534328
• ISBN 13: 9780593534328
• Einband: Gebundene Ausgabe
• Zeichner: Kretschmann Karin
• Anzahl der Seiten: 736
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Knopf; https://knopfdoubleday.com; ; 3 Queen Caroline Street Hammersmith; London; W6 9PE; Vereinigtes Königreich
• Verantwortliche Person: preigu; mail@preigu.de; ; Lengericher Landstr. 19; Osnabrück; 49078; Deutschland