L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2022 www.italoamericano.org 30 L'Italo-Americano K n o w n a s t h e godmother of I t a l i a n c o o k - ing, Marcella H a z a n i s revered in the cooking com- munity. With six cookbooks and years of teaching cook- ing classes, she distilled the very essence of Italian cook- ing, making it available and a c c e s s i b l e t o t h e a v e r a g e A m e r i c a n c o o k a t a t i m e when Italian cooking was still considered exotic. Her approach was revo- lutionary, each recipe clear and thorough, yet concise. She advocated for high-qual- ity ingredients, picked in season and simply prepared. She became so well known that Bloomingdale's 59 th S t r e e t s t o r e i n N e w Y o r k City installed and named a kitchen boutique for her — Marcella Hazan's Italian Kitchen—stocking it with her homemade pasta Bolog- nese and Tuscan olive oil. Born in Cesenatico, Italy, in 1924, she died on September 29, 2013. T h i s S e p t e m b e r , n i n e years following her death, Essentials of Classic Ital- i a n C o o k i n g w a s p u b - lished, bringing together her t w o m o s t - b e l o v e d c o o k - b o o k s i n a s i n g l e 3 0 t h - anniversary volume. Her husband and collaborator, Victor Hazan, at the age of 94, took on a national book tour to introduce Marcella to a new generation of cooks. Recently he was in Seattle at the Book Larder, a commu- nity cookbook store in the F r e m o n t n e i g h b o r h o o d , w h e r e h e s h a r e d s t o r i e s about his wife, her cooking and their 60-year relation- ship. What can readers find in the 30 th -anniversary cookbook? The new book is based on Marcella's groundbreaking book of 1973, The Classic Italian Cookbook, and its companion volume, More Classic Italian Cooking, which came out in 1978. We a l s o i n c l u d e d a b a k e r ' s dozen of new recipes. The book includes the popular technical section for people who are new to Italian cook- ing or unfamiliar with Ital- i a n i n g r e d i e n t s o r t e c h - niques. What makes Marcel- la's approach to food so different? Marcella had acute obser- vation. She had two doctoral d e g r e e s , i n b i o l o g y a n d botany. She paid attention to details. She had an extraor- dinary memory, and a recall for taste. She recast those memories into a notebook that eventually became her first cookbook. Her recipes were written long before she even considered they might g o i n t o a c o o k b o o k . S h e b e g a n t o k e e p t r a c k o f recipes around 1955 when she was cooking for me and other friends. She never bought any- thing in a package or just s c o o p e d u p a h a n d f u l o f something. If we were at the market to buy green beans, she would choose them one by one. She would ask peo- ple: how did you make this? W h a t d i d y o u u s e ? H e r recipes are rooted in Italian t r a d i t i o n s b u t s h e r e c a s t them as her own. Marcella was known for her cooking classes. H o w d i d t h a t c o m e about? Marcella loved Chinese food and was taking cooking classes in the late 1960s in New York City. One day her teacher announced she was taking a sabbatical. The stu- dents, including Marcella, were very disappointed. As the students discussed what they should do next, one of them asked Marcella what k i n d o f f o o d s h e c o o k e d . Marcella said "normal" food, m e a n i n g I t a l i a n , b u t t o e v e r y o n e e l s e i t s e e m e d exotic. Her students asked if she would teach them Italian cooking, and that is how she began. H o w d i d t h e t w o o f you meet? Both Marcella and I were born in northern Italy. As a boy, my family spent sum- mers in Rimini on the coast. Marcella's family also vaca- tioned on the water but in another small town. In 1939, w e m o v e d t o N e w Y o r k where I was tremendously h o m e s i c k . I m i s s e d m y grandmother, I missed my classmates, I missed living in a walkable city, but most of all, I missed good food. We were from Bologna, you s e e . T h e f o o d i n I t a l y i s fresh, made that day and absolutely sublime. You can imagine the food in New York in the 1940s. I could hardly recognize it as food. As a teenager, I said to myself: as soon as I can, I am going to return to Italy. And I did. After World War II, I went back to the Italian seaside and almost the very next day, I met Marcella. She was a beautiful woman and I fell instantly in love. For the next 60 years, we were inseparable. Did she cook northern or southern Italian? Her first book has recipes from her home territory in n o r t h e r n I t a l y . A f t e r w e married, we started to trav- el. We both loved to explore, a n d I t a l y i s f i l l e d w i t h recipes. She loved Neapoli- tan cooking, for example. She adopted many of Italy's southern dishes but in ways that reflected her taste. She knew what she was doing. What is your favorite dish that Marcella would make for you? My favorite dish is one of t h e m o s t s i m p l e , l a s a g n a verde alla Bolognese, but M a r c e l l a ' s v e r s i o n a d d e d p o r c i n i m u s h r o o m s . S h e always made it for my birth- day. No one can create that d i s h q u i t e l i k e M a r c e l l a , b e c a u s e s h e p u t s o m u c h p a s s i o n i n t o i t . T h e N e w Y o r k T i m e s h o n o r e d h e r recipe by calling it the gold standard of Bolognese sauce. Marcella Hazan's iconic cookbooks continue to inspire RITA CIPALLA Victor Hazan, center, visits with Seattle's Book Larder staff during an event to promote the 30th anniversary edition of "Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking" by cookbook icon Marcella Hazan (Photo: Mary Heim) SEATTLE ITALIAN COMMUNITY

• Cover