Marcella Says...: Italian Cooking Wisdom from the Legendary Teacher's Master Classes, with More Than 100 of Her Irresistible New Recipes by Marcella Hazan, Victor Hazan

From Barnes & Noble

Marcella Says contains 120 new recipes, but Marcella Hazan's sixth book is intended to be much more than a recipe book. In an interview, its author explained its purpose in her inimitable way: "Always the students ask me: 'How long do you cook it, Marcella? How do I fry without making it greasy, Marcella? So many questions, all the time. I thought, why not answer all in one place? So the first part of the book has no recipes, only teaching and learning. It's called 'Master Class.' " Marcella Says is designed to be a sane crash course in Italian cookery -- and it succeeds.

From the Publisher

In this valedictory recipe collection and teaching book, legendary author and inspirational cooking teacher Marcella Hazan shares invaluable lessons in Italian cooking, including mastering traditional techniques, selecting and using ingredients, and planning and preparing complete Italian menus.

Marcella Hazan is acclaimed, certainly, for her several trailblazing cookbooks. But, first and foremost, she is a teacher. From her first cooking classes, in the 1960s, held in her small New York City apartment kitchen, to the avidly sought-after Master Classes she led in her beautiful Venice home, Marcella has been the authoritative guide to Italian cooking. Now, in a much-anticipated follow up to Marcella Cucina, she brings her warm, conversational, and illuminating teachings into home kitchens everywhere.

Part of what has made Marcella such a beloved teacher and author is her unique ability to present each recipe as a narrative, with subplots, characters, and rich history. This latest collection of 120 tantalizing recipes demonstrates just how many delicious new stories she still has to tell. Alongside her classic recipes are essays offering in-depth information on the techniques that make authentic Italian food so delicious. In a volume whose novel format pulls the reader into class with Marcella, she provides recipes and instructions for everything from fruit to seafood, meats and grains, and a valuable "Master Class" chapter complete with tips and procedures for handling ingredients to get the most flavor out of them. Pure and simple, it is as close as you can get to have Marcella alongside you in your kitchen.

Publishers Weekly

Hazan, the woman credited with teaching Americans that there's more to Italian cooking than spaghetti and meatballs, models her sixth book on her renowned cooking courses. Thus, as readers progress through this work, they'll feel Hazan's censorious presence as they wonder, for example, if they can skip blanching and proceed directly to saut ing rapini, but they'll learn a lot if they can overlook her occasionally blunt manner ("The unbalanced use of garlic is the single greatest cause of failure in would-be Italian cooking"). Hazan gives loads of practical instructions and dozens of fantastic recipes concentrating on insaporire, the act of developing "the flavor of a single or several ingredients." Indeed, insaporire is the focus of many lessons, whether it's making the perfect Italian broth-subtler than stock, yet elegant and versatile-or matching pasta shapes to sauces. Nearly the first hundred pages consist of information-packed paragraphs deriving from Hazan's classes, where she haughtily but knowingly details techniques and ingredients. Next come the recipes, a tasty array of antipasti, pasta sauces, homemade pasta, fish, meat and vegetables. Throughout, readers will find useful notes-"Marcella Says"-in which the famous teacher gives hands-on advice. (Oct.) Forecast: Though aging, Hazan is still teaching and will promote this book nationwide. Her fans will surely want it for their collections. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

When Hazan wrote Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking more than ten years ago, she said it was her last book; when Marcella Cucina was published in 1997, she said it was absolutely her last book. Fortunately for us, that was not the case. Originally, she wanted to call this Simple, True Italian Cooking; it features more of Hazan's brilliantly simple recipes, like Celery, Avocado, and Bell Pepper Salad with Black Olives, just one of several recipes featuring avocado, an ingredient she uses quite often now that she lives in Florida instead of Venice. The book opens with sections covering basic techniques and essential skills, e.g., "Why and How You Should Be Making Your Own Egg Pasta." Individual recipes offer further insights and opinions in brief paragraphs interspersed throughout under the heading "Marcella Says." Small black-and-white photographs of the author at the market or, mostly, teaching her cooking classes don't add much--Hazan's recipes and knowledgeable text need no adornment. An essential purchase. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Product Details

• Table of Contents
• Read a Sample Chapter

Table of Contents

Read a Sample Chapter

About This Book

A long time ago I fell in love with a slim, elegant man who had an aristocratic profile, an elegantly trimmed goatee, and a twinkle in his eye. I was eight years old. He was my grandfather Riccardo. I used to snuggle up to him in his big old chair of cracked brown leather that, like him, had a thrilling grown-up smell of tobacco, and he would tell me a story. The stories were about the adventures of Fagiolino and Sandrone, a pair of ludicrously mismatched scamps. Fagiolino -- the Italian word for string bean -- was tall, very thin, wicked, and devilishly clever. Whenever his scrapes were about to land him in serious trouble, he always managed to slip out of the noose, sometimes by putting Sandrone's neck in it instead. Sandrone was short, fat, fatuous, greedy, and eternally gullible. The only one of these tales from seventy years ago whose plot I can remember has Fagiolino and Sandrone sitting on an embankment by the sea at sunset, a glittering sunset that spilled golden light over the water. Sandrone pokes Fagiolino in the ribs and says, "Look over there how pretty it is, the sea shining like gold!" "You goose," replies Fagiolino, "it isn't like gold, it really is gold, a phenomenon of nature that can happen only when the sun hits the water at a very unusual angle. It may never happen again in your lifetime so take that rowboat tied up at the dock and get over there really fast, before the sun moves, and scoop up as much gold as you can load into the boat. I'll stay here to distract anyone who might catch on to what we are doing." Sandrone falls for it, but eventually he has to rmartin.