Taste: My Life Through Food

by Stanley Tucci

Here are a few wonderful and, for me, acceptable combinations of paste and salse. Spaghetti: Salsa pomodoro con tonno, carbonara, vongole Rigatoni: Beef-based ragù, all’Amatriciana Ditali: Salsa pomodoro con piselli, salsa pomodoro con cozze

Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well. This unique tome, published in 1891, was the work of Pellegrino Artusi, a seventy-one-year-old retired businessman who was the first person ever to assemble hundreds of recipes from every region of Italy and put them into a single cookbook. Originally containing 450 recipes, it now contains over 700 and is like a second Bible in the home of most Italians.

Meat, unless it is actually a part of the sauce, as with ragù alla Bolognese, is meant to be served separately, just as bread is meant to be eaten after pasta and only used as a “scarpetto” (meaning, in essence, “little shoe”) to mop up any excess sauce left in the bowl.

Ragù Tucci This is the traditional way the Tuccis make ragù. My maternal grandmother made a lighter version of this same sauce. It calls for spareribs and stewing beef in this recipe, but different cuts of meat may be added depending on what is on hand—pork chops, sausage, pig’s feet. It is delicious with polpette (meatballs), which may be added to the sauce during the last half hour of cooking. The sauce may be prepared two days ahead of serving. Refrigerate it overnight and reheat before tossing with the pasta. It may also be frozen with the meat and meatballs. — SERVES 8 — ¼ cup olive oil 1 pound stewing beef, trimmed of fat, rinsed, patted dry, and cut into medium-size pieces 1 pound country-style spareribs, trimmed of fat, cut in half, rinsed, and patted dry 1 cup roughly chopped onions 3 garlic cloves, roughly chopped ½ cup dry red wine One 6-ounce can tomato paste 1 ½ cups warm water, plus more as needed 8 cups canned whole plum tomatoes (about two 35-ounce cans), passed through a food mill or pureed in the blender 3 fresh basil leaves 1 tablespoon fresh oregano leaves, chopped, or 1 teaspoon dried Warm the olive oil in a stew pot set over medium-high heat. Sear the stewing beef until brown on all sides, about 10 minutes. Remove from the pot and set aside in a bowl. Add the spareribs to the pot and sear until they are brown on all sides, about 10 minutes. Remove the ribs and set aside in the bowl with the stewing beef. (If your pot is big enough to hold all the meat...

But perhaps the most precious heirlooms are family recipes. Like a physical heirloom, they remind us from whom and where we came and give others, in a bite, the story of another people from another place and another time.

Frittata — SERVES 2 — 5 or 6 large eggs 3 to 4 tablespoons olive oil Kosher salt A good pinch of chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley (optional) A good pinch of freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano Freshly ground black pepper Crack the eggs into a bowl and beat them gently with a fork for a minute or so, making sure you angle the bowl so that you really blend them well. You could use a whisk instead of a fork, if you prefer, but you will end up with a puffier-textured frittata. In a 10-inch sauté pan with sloping sides, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. You want to get it pretty hot and tilt the pan to make sure the sides are well coated. When the oil is hot, season the eggs with salt and add the parsley, if using, then pour the mixture into the pan. Scramble the eggs vigorously with a silicone spatula, tipping and moving the pan continuously and drawing the eggs from the sides into the middle. Keep the pan moving to make sure the eggs don’t stick. Add the Parmigiano and a good grinding of pepper. Then flip or turn the frittata and cook for a minute or so more, until golden and cooked through. Serve immediately.

Felicity usually responds with something subtly cynical, like, “I don’t think they moved the Pitti Palace while we slept last night, dear.” “Colonialist,” I whisper darkly as I forge ahead into the void.