Food Notes: 3/18
Marcella Hazan, zeppole, ramps, green spaghetti, fat fads, and more
I had the chance to preview Marcella, a documentary about the cookbook author Marcella Hazan. She fundamentally changed how Americans thought about Italian food and helped usher in a new era of “northern” and “authentic” Italian cuisine in America. Hazan was born in Italy, earned a doctorate degree in natural sciences, and only took up cooking when she moved to New York City with her husband Victor.
Hazan disliked American food, and it was this disappointment that led her to start cooking. Armed with Ada Boni’s iconic The Talisman of Happiness, she taught herself how to cook, and eventually she began teaching classes. She caught the attention of Craig Claiborne, the New York Times food writer, who introduced Hazan to people like Julia Child and encouraged her to write her first cookbook.
Working with her husband who translated the written Italian, Hazan wrote The Classic Italian Cook Book in a about year. Despite the book’s first publisher was ill-equipped to promote a cookbook, it sold well. Editor Judith Jones, who had oversaw Mastering the Art of French Cooking, acquired and reissued the book, as well as the followup More Classic Italian Cooking. Today, both books have been edited into Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking.
The documentary film noted that Judith Jones and Marcella Hazan didn’t always agree. The best line from Hazan’s writings is: "publisher's often know best, but authors know better.” As one example of their friction, the film cites the recipe Cavolfiore Gratinato con la Balsamella as one of the conflicts. Obviously I decided to cook it.
I looked up the recipe in my vintage 1978 edition of More Classic Italian Cooking, along with the Chicken with two lemons. I picked out a yellow cauliflower from the store for a little added color although in retrospect the photo makes it look a bit like macaroni and cheese.
The cauliflower was surprisingly straightforward to make. First I par boiled the cauliflower for about minutes, let it cool, and sliced it into small pieces. Then I cooked up a béchamel sauce fortified with parmigiana cheese, combined it with the cauliflower, and baked.
I’ve been cooking up a lot of béchamel sauce lately, especially as a filling for lasagna. There are few things that are not improved by it.
The chicken with two lemons is another famously simply dish. It requires a whole chicken, two lemons, salt, and pepper. The recipe explicitly tells you not to add extra oil to the bird.
I stuffed the chicken with the punctured lemons and pulled the bird together. Here’s where I ultimately encountered a problem. While I followed Hazan’s instructions, the bird took much longer to come to temperature. This may have been because the bird was on the smaller side and two lemons filled the cavity rather than allowing air to circulate. Or it may have been because I was also roasting potatoes and cooking the cauliflower in the oven.
Either way, I had to pop the bird back into the oven for a few extra minutes after everything else was finished beyond the recipe’s cooking time.
You can find an adaptation of the cauliflower recipe here. For the chicken with two lemons, empty out the bird, wash, and dry. Cover with salt and pepper. Puncture two lemons with 20 holes each, stuffing them inside the cavity. Pull the bird shut. Roast breast side down at 350F for 20 minutes. Flip, roast for another 15 minutes, and then increase the temperature to 400F for 20 minutes. For our oven, and with other pans coking, this wasn’t enough time. I added a thermometer, and kept it cooking at 350 until it came to temperature.
The Latest
Happy Italian Father’s Day
March 19th is the Feast of San Giuseppe, also known as Father’s Day among Italian Americans. To celebrate, bakeries fry Zeppole di San Giuseppe, a spiral-pastry filled with custard or cannoli cream. The zeppole are usually available wherever Sicilians settled, but especially in New York’s metro area. In Rhode Island, they take the zeppole very seriously. Bakeries have many different flavors, including Irish Cream. There’s brackets ranking the best. In New Orleans, Italian Americans mark the day with a parade and an enormous bowl of Pasta con le Sarde.
The New Fats Same As The Old Fats
All anyone seems to be talking about these days is beef tallow french fries and which fast food companies are switching out their cooking oils. There’s a lot more to fat than just swapping out the fryer oil, as Kat Kinsman explores at Food & Wine. Like Kinsman discovering that butter tastes better than oleo, I had my own butter-breakthrough as a kid. I long wondered why a buttered bagel from the bagel store tasted so much better than the butter at home. Turns out my mother was only stocking unsalted butter — better for baking, but not so good for flavor.
The Bourgeois Cosmic Brownie
Cosmic brownies are one of my favorite ultra-processed desserts. A simple, shelf-stable treat with just the right texture and a little crunch. Chefs have apparently been gentrifying the humble cosmic brownie for upscale restaurants and bakeries. Bon Appétit looks back at the vintage treat, which is apparently only 26-years-old.
Ramp Season is (almost) Upon Us
The annual running of privileged middle-aged urbanites seeking the last bunch of ramps at the farmer’s market is just a few weeks away. Eater has an “everything you always wanted to know” about the wild onions. What might surprise you is ramps aren’t just popular in gentrified Brooklyn. There’s a long history of celebrating the alliums in West Virginia where you’ll find festivals and dinner parties throughout the month of April. As a devoted ramp fan, you can bet this isn’t the last you’ve heard about them from me this season.
Quote of the Week
“I’m from New Jersey, so naturally, I grew up thinking I was Italian by association” writes Angel at BusBoy.
Are Limits on Natural Gas Hookups Killing Restaurants?
Helen Rosner speculates that one reason there may be so many Japanese-inspired Omakase restaurants in New York City is the menus don’t require a gas hookup. Most need just refrigeration and toaster ovens. Local Law 154 bans new residential buildings from having gas lines, which might make it impossible or not financially feasible for commercial spaces. New York State has similar restrictions coming into effect.
Is Green Spaghetti The Next Big Thing?
It’s got nothing to do with St. Patrick’s Day. Espaghetti Verdi comes from the Rio Grande Valley in Texas, explains José R. Ralat. There’s no exact recipe, but includes peppers, sour cream, cream cheese, and stock. Obviously, I’m planning on cooking a version of this up as soon as possible.
Second Life for Brooklyn’s Oldest Sicilian Restaurant
Last month, Ferdinando’s Focacceria, Brooklyn’s oldest 120-year-old Sicilian restaurant closed unexpectedly because of the aging owners health. The good news is a successor has been named. There wasn’t any white smoke, but Emma Orlow reports Sal Lamboglia, who owns Cafe Spaghetti, is set to take over the old restaurant. The restaurant will evolve, with a renovation planned, and probably an updated menu, though some of the original recipes are likely to remain.
Eating in Miami
Last month we were in Florida celebrating mid-winter break. While we were there, we ate at Michelle Bernstein’s La Cańita with a menu that has the best-of Miami’s latin cuisine.
My first cookbook was Ada Boni's, my second and third were Marcella Hazan's books.