Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking Quotes

“Once the pasta is sauced, serve it promptly, inviting your guests and family to put off talking and start eating.”
― Marcella Hazan, Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking: 30th Anniversary Edition: A Cookbook

“I believe with my whole heart in the act of cooking, in its smells, in its sounds, in its observable progress on the stove. The microwave separates the cook from cooking, cutting off the emotional and physical pleasure deeply rooted in the act, and not even with its swiftest and neatest performance can the push-button wizardry of the device compensate for such a loss.”
― Marcella Hazan, Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking

“The most useful thing one can know about basil is that the less it cooks, the better it is, and that its fragrance is never more seductive than when it is raw.”
― Marcella Hazan, Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking: 30th Anniversary Edition: A Cookbook

“Aceto balsamico is marvelous over cut, fresh strawberries when they are tossed with it just before serving.”
― Marcella Hazan, Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking: 30th Anniversary Edition: A Cookbook

“The onion is sautéed first, when it becomes translucent the garlic is added,”
― Marcella Hazan, Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking: 30th Anniversary Edition: A Cookbook

“instantly associated”
― Marcella Hazan, Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking: 30th Anniversary Edition: A Cookbook

“uninterrupted chain of the continent’s tallest mountains,”
― Marcella Hazan, Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking: 30th Anniversary Edition: A Cookbook

“The cooking of Italy is really the cooking of regions that long antedate the Italian nation, regions that until 1861 were part of sovereign and usually hostile states, sharing few cultural traditions and no common spoken language”
― Marcella Hazan, Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking: 30th Anniversary Edition: A Cookbook

“olive bread.”
― Marcella Hazan, Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking: 30th Anniversary Edition: A Cookbook

“but often discovering that the recipe had to be wholly reshaped to make room for the perceptions and experiences gained in the intervening years of cooking and teaching.”
― Marcella Hazan, Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking: 30th Anniversary Edition: A Cookbook

“Perhaps without my always being fully conscious of it, the dishes continued to evolve, moving always toward a simpler, clearer expression of their primary flavors, and toward a steadily diminishing dependence on cooking fat.”
― Marcella Hazan, Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking: 30th Anniversary Edition: A Cookbook

“such as a three-ingredient tomato sauce, a chicken with just two lemons, a soup with but a ladleful of cannellini, a pork butt braised solely in milk, a bluefish baked with garlic and potatoes, a pasta with a fistful of small scallops, Bolognese sauce, are drawn from the everyday meals Marcella cooked for her family.”
― Marcella Hazan, Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking: 30th Anniversary Edition: A Cookbook

“After the gravedigger’s testimony had been heard, the judge spoke to Marcella. “Signorina,” he said, “we are too busy here with serious matters to spend time on such foolishness. Take your skull, go home, and don’t let us see you again.”
― Marcella Hazan, Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking: 30th Anniversary Edition: A Cookbook

“Their patrols were always on the move, and so were the bombs that Allied planes dropped on them. When Marcella went off to school in the morning, there was no certainty that she would get back.”
― Marcella Hazan, Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking: 30th Anniversary Edition: A Cookbook

“Lidia, this is how America has to cook Italian.” And with this wonderful book, she showed us all how.”
― Marcella Hazan, Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking: 30th Anniversary Edition: A Cookbook

“Italians love to grow and eat vegetables, and in each of the twenty regions of the country, there is a favorite one.”
― Marcella Hazan, Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking: 30th Anniversary Edition: A Cookbook

“and the differences between rolling pasta by hand versus with a machine.”
― Marcella Hazan, Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking: 30th Anniversary Edition: A Cookbook

“A cook is at a disadvantage if they don’t have an understanding and knowledge of these products, and Marcella made it her mission to write about parmigiano-reggiano, aceto balsamico, bottarga, dried porcini, colatura di alici, olive oil, capers, Arborio and Carnaroli rice, mortadella, and more, many of which were not yet widely known in America. She even dedicates six pages to the different shapes of pasta and suggested sauces.”
― Marcella Hazan, Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking: 30th Anniversary Edition: A Cookbook

“Marcella recalls in her writings and interviews that she had very little interest in food growing up, but did have vivid memories of her tiny grandmother standing on a crate, rolling pasta into silky sheets that were almost as big as a bedspread.”
― Marcella Hazan, Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking: 30th Anniversary Edition: A Cookbook