Marcella’s Italian Kitchen | Cookbook Culture

Cookbook Review:

From time to time I like to break out my first cookbooks from 20+ years ago. Dog-eared and stained pages with broken bindings (due to heavy cans of roma tomatoes holding them open while I cook) show how much I really love(d) them. I still remember the joy of finding a Marcella Hazan gem, Marcella’s Italian Kitchen (Knopf, 1986), at a second hand bookseller on Polk Street in San Francisco. The shop is long gone but the recipes from this cookbook were my first exposure to the joys of her Cucina Italiana and remain one of my absolute favorites. Try making her classic tomato sauce via NYT Cooking (download PDF) for dinner tonight.