![]() Almost all of us are stuck indoors at the moment anyway, whilst speedy recipes can often be a frantic rush. Amongst the obsession with quick dinners and 15-minute meals, Hazan reminds us to slow down and just let something bubble away in a pot, maybe giving it a stir from time to time. What this recipe shows is that a long cooking time needn’t imply complexity – quite the opposite. Set it to the lowest simmer for at least three hours and use it to dress tagliatelle. The entire procedure is just stirring things in and then a long test of patience: first the soffritto, then brown the mince, let some milk bubble away, some white wine, and finally tinned tomatoes. But Hazan’s recipe, deceptive in its simplicity and a masterclass in the slow braise, is where my love of home cooking began. (What you also learn is that there is no definitive recipe, no matter what the Accademia Italiana della Cucina says, and that arguing about it is half the fun). Obviously, if you do want to make a ‘real’ ragù, eventually you find your way to Marcella Hazan. Who would have thought that would have led to, five years later, my New Year’s resolution being to limit how many pasta shapes I had in the kitchen cupboard because it was literally getting out of control? ![]() It all started easily enough: I was bored of spaghetti bolognese and I wanted to make a ‘real’ ragù instead. ![]() ![]() For me, Marcella Hazan’s ‘The Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking’ is the cookbook. Medieval philosophers, in their reverence to him, used to simply refer to Aristotle as ‘The Philosopher’. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |