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It started, as so many good ideas do, with a call-to-blog from Mrs. Wheelbarrow. Her suggestion, to host a dinner to honor one of my favorite cookbook authors and a personality I had always wanted to meet, Marcella Hazan, on October 26th, and to blog about it, was just the thing to welcome Fall to the dinner table. I live in California- we get a late and very mild rendition of Fall compared to the rest of the country, but we still like to acknowledge the transition from one quarter to the next with a change in menus from salads to soups, from grilled to braised. Marcella had passed away at the end of September, leaving behind many eloquent and amusing tributes on Facebook, all making me regret even more the fact that I had never crossed her path, but terribly happy that she had crossed mine.
First up, the guest list, which brought together close friends and provided an opportunity to include a couple I had been planning to invite since our food and wine saturated trip to Napa and The French Laundry in January, their daughter and soon to be son-in-law who were visiting that weekend, and another good friend and her new partner, someone we were all just getting to know but knew we liked. It seemed like a good group to gather, knowing they would enjoy the food and appreciate the salute to a great woman.
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And, then, the menu planning, a step I always enjoy because it’s so like researching a term paper: plowing through cookbooks and marking what looks good, then honing the list down to a grouping that is balanced, complimentary and accomplishable. Generally, my menus are more than anyone could cook for one meal, and this was no exception. I had two of Marcella Hazan’s books- Essentials of Italian Cooking and Marcella Cucina– and took this exercise as a good excuse to order two more-Marcella’s Italian Kitchen and Marcella Says, on Amazon.com. Her books are everything I love about good cookbooks, chock full of good, solid, dependable recipes woven with personal stories or cultural references from the writer. From Marcella you get a picture of how a recipe came into her repertoire: one a childhood favorite of hers, another that she learned to please her husband, Victor, because it had been a part of his childhood memories, or then one that she recreated after sampling a version in a favorite restaurant.
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And from Marcella, you got a unique, exacting and precise language. Or so it seemed, until you learn that she never, herself, wrote in English but rather gave that task over to Victor, giving him the manuscript to write in what he knew to be his wife’s voice. After learning this, I always wondered whose personality I was picking up on from the recipe books- Marcella or Victor. One article I read suggested it was a bit of both, and, after 58 years together, I imagine this is true. Reading through the recipes I found myself focused on the language, as I read sentences that instructed, on the proper slice for fennel in one recipe, “If you have a mandolin this would be a good time to use it”; to salt the mozzarella if, after tasting, it was found to be “…very insipid”; and described the town of Treviso as both “beautiful” and “gluttonous”. Sounds like my kind of town! In these recipes, there was never any ambiguity in the intended direction, whether they were rife with ingredients and took days to put together like the Ossobuco that was my first Marcella recipe attempt over twenty years ago, or a simple three ingredient tomato sauce that took less than an hour from start to finish.
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It seemed important to make this a meal served in courses, with each course given it’s full due. Kara, the daughter and bride to be, brought her camera and black box and was put in charge of a picture of each course- and she did a spectacular job! My small condo barely holds a small table for six, so the guests had to create our banquet table by carting in two banquet tables and all of the chairs, hastily placing the settings from the silverware, china and crystal placed ahead of time on the buffet.
We started off with my favorite of the night: a Butternut Squash and Parmesean Pudding (Marcella Says, pg. 98) served with a thinly sliced Belgian endive lightly dressed with olive oil ( another Marcella instruction : “Only dress a salad with Olive Oil”) and white wine vinegar and accessorized with the prescribed tomatoes.
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And, our second course, Aquacotta, a Tuscan peasant soup with kale, cabbage and cannellini beans (Essentials of Italian Cooking, pg 104) was served as suggested, with a slice of bread at the bottom and a grating of parmesan on top. In the interest of my guests, who I feared would run off if faced with too, too much food ( and how do you know when it’s too, too much?), I did leave off the egg that was also a topping choice. Also, I was dealing with a pescetarian guest or two, so omitted the beef stock (or bullion cube) that was called for in the recipe and, even without it, the soup was thick and heavy with flavor. I wondered about that bullion cube- after reading of the compromises pushed on Julia Child by her publishers because of a lack of available ingredients at the time they published Mastering the Art of French Cooking and a concern for the American cook’s willingness/ability to carry out the traditional steps for a recipe- was that bullion cube just such a suggested compromise?
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Of course, we had to have a pasta course! Potato Gnocci (Essentials, pg. 260) dressed with that three ingredient Tomato Sauce (Essentials, pg. 152). Just tomatoes, onion and butter simmered, uncovered, for 45 minutes. Simple and delicious. However, every meal has it’s challenges, and I have to say, I messed up on those Gnocci. Luckily, Darin, my savior pastry chef friend was cleaver enough to suggest that I give them a little swirl in a pan of sizzling butter, which converted them from gooey to glorious.
Served side by side were two main courses: Sautéed Scallops with Cime di Rapa, Garlic, and Chili Pepper (Marcella Cucina, pg. 246) and Drunken Roast Pork (Essentials, pg. 419). The Scallop recipe was tasty and a bit spicy, and would even make a wonderfully tasty side dish without the scallops. And the pork, studded with carrots and braised in a full bottle (okay, I used more than suggested in the recipe!) of Barolo, was succulent and tasty!
This is where I forgot to serve the fennel and orange salad that was prepped and ready to toss. It was very good the next day. And, given the length of the meal, I’m happy to say, this is the only thing I forgot!
And finally!!! Two desserts- each lovely in their own way. An Orange Cake, Anacona Style (Marcella Cucina, pg. 422), a simple cake with a fresh orange juice glaze. And a richer Limoncello Panna Cotta (Marcella Cucina, pg. 436, plus my own addition of 2 Tb. Limoncella) layered with a homemade lemon curd, served in my grandmother’s Fostoria crystal.
We finished off the night with espressos and shots of Sambuca, Limoncello and, venturing off to southwestern France, Armagnac, which made it possible to deal with the three dishwasher loads of dirty dishes and an overflowing trash can. Through out the evening, and especially as we sipped these after dinner drinks, we toasted Marcella, thanking her for what she gave us this night and forever.
One thought on “Marcella”
An unforgettable meal relived through your entertaining prose, a delightful tribute to a talented cook by another of the same! Thank you for a memorable evening.