So here's the thing. Everyone likes Marcella Hazan.
The problem is, I am absolutely not able to work out of her cookbooks.
Marcella has a lot of opinions. You'd better be familiar with those opinions too, because things have to be Marcella's way. But Marcella doesn't always make "her way" terribly clear.* No, let me restate that. She makes her way very very clear indeed, to the detriment of the damn recipe.
See, this fucks with my chi. So I chucked her and went with the cookbook that Marcella taught herself to cook from: Talismano della Felicita - The Talisman Italian Cookbook.
This is not the rooty-toot version, the one written for first generation American born Italians, but this served my needs better. This is the abridged version, no foreign dishes, only Italian, written for an American public that was utterly fucking unfamiliar with the genre.
It takes nothing for granted. It simply tells you how. And that's what REFERENCE is all about, dammit.
What bites me is wondering if Marcella, self-taught, having arisen fully formed like Venus from the sea, who cribbed her whole career from The Talisman, paid Ada Boni any, like, money? or even just gave her thanks publicly for her legacy.
Was there anything else I could have done with that sentence? Nope.
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Now me, I taught myself how to cook Italian out of this book vvv, and I did it starting back in 1968, because we didn't have video games in those days:
I am really sentimental about this little book.
I have no idea how this made it into my mothers house; it was just there. I used to read it when I was a little kid. Once I got over being afraid of the stove, I did the pasta recipe. Then I did the Ravioli.
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I tantalized you with a mention a month or so back. Here it is:
This is all about Tony Bourdain. No bones about it. It's Tony the product, doing his best Tony here, giving us recipes that were favorites of his.
If you don't want to cook out of it, just sit back and read the thing. It is a very entertaining read, particularly if you're a little high.
He takes no prisoners. None. This is his punk rock cookbook dammit. Don't expect anything, because this is basically everything, like someone kept all their recipes in a shoebox and dumped it out on their bed. But it is also a workable damn cookbook.
Some recipes are beginners' stuff, or just very basic, tasty things, and some are long, complicated, and use ingredients not found on this land mass.
He has Hamburger Rules. He tells you to toast your fucking muffin. He lets you know that one dish had him 'shitting like a mink'. AND I LOVE EVERY WORD.
My house is strictly Bourdain. I mean omgwtfbvq we have this huge gaudy fuckin' thing on the wall in our kitchen. vvv
If you are not a fan, and you have a stick up your ass, you won't like this cookbook much, because it is so very Tony©, and the word 'fuck' is thrown around pretty freely. But because you can cook quite easily from it, it's a keeper as far as I'm concerned.
Would I have gotten rid of it had it been a loser? Fuck yeah. I'm hardass like that.
- well not exactly like that. ^
Imagine a very mean cheese.
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*Your mileage may vary! I understand that! I just don't care.
I understand that this was Marcella's 'swan song' and that she's allowed a little leeway, that being the case. I understand that she was a strong personality, and that her 'Nonna Ballabusta' thing was part of her appeal; Marcella hads to get paid. (Whatever the tense is on poor grammar.) I just find it busy, self-aggrandizing and poorly organized.
OOH LOOK BONUS RECIPE!
I love Anthony Bourdain referring to someone as "fucknuts". That seems very much definitive.
ReplyDeleteIt is. Damn, we here at the El Apartmento miss him so much,
DeleteAnything that makes cooking easy is a winner with me.
ReplyDeleteSx
You know what would v a winner with me? If I could find your blog, your blogging platform, your posts, you, and your blogging output. Every time I feel like I have you pinned down you slip away. You're so elusive. Like an elusive dove. Just all elusive.
Delete"Everyone likes Marcella Hazan". I, for one, never heard of her - nor Ada Boni. Nor, indeed, your mother's Italian cookbook.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I checked Madam Arcati's vast (indexed) collection, and (perhaps inevitably) Marcella is indeed there, present and correct, and on our shelves.
Mr Bourdain, on the other hand, does not appear to be on his list. Surprisingly. Jx
Well naturally Marcella is there! Tony, on the other hand, is more of an American cult of personality thing. It amazes me that you look this stuff up! XOO
ReplyDeleteWell, he's spent an inordinate amount of time indexing the collection (and of course buying new ones to add to it!), so it made sense to look at it. Jx
DeleteI think I've commented about the cover of Anthony Bourdain's cookbook before, but now I've seen (some of) the contents it looks like a ransom note!
ReplyDeleteIt is Tony being all punk rock, is what that is. And the cover is by the same notorious American artist who did the cover of Hunter S. Thompsons 'Fear and Loathing In Los Vegas", Ralph Steadman. If I could find a way to do it I'd have this blog decorated a la Steadman!
DeleteI have a lovely Ada Boni book...I think I bought it as much for the gorgeous photos as the recipes. How often do I cook from it? Not often enough...
ReplyDelete