Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: 039458404X
Manufacturer: Knopf
Release Date: 1992-10-27
Average Customer Review: 
(From 106 total reviews)
List Price: $30.00
Amazon Price: $17.72 (36 new 41 used available)
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Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com:
Perhaps more than any other person, Marcella Hazan is responsible for bringing Italian cuisine into the homes of American cooks. We’re not talking spaghetti and meatballs here–Hazan’s cuisine consists of polenta, risotto, squid braised with tomatoes and white wine, sautéed swiss chard with olive oil and garlic…. Twenty years ago, when Hazan first exploded into the American consciousness with The Classic Italian Cook Book and More Classic Italian Cooking, such recipes were revolutionary. With time, however, these classic dishes have become much-beloved family favorites.
Now a new generation is ready to be introduced to Marcella Hazan’s way with food, and in Essentials of Italian Cooking Hazan combines her two earlier works into one update and expanded volume. In addition to the delicious collection of recipes, this book serves as a basic manual for cooks of every skill level. Recipes have been revised to reduce fat content, and a whole new chapter full of fundamental information about herbs, spices, and cheeses used in Italian kitchens–as well as details on how to select specific ingredients–has been added. New chapters, new recipes–who could ask for more than Essentials of Italian Cooking?
Book Description:
With more than 100 illustrations by Karin Kretschman.
Customer Reviews
Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking by Sandra
This is one of the best cookbooks I own, and certainly the best Italian cookbook I own.
A must-have for any kitchen by Lea Wray
Like many people, I get many of my recipes online at sources like allrecipes, Food Network, Food & Wine, etc. It makes me wonder why I keep so many cookbooks cluttering up the kitchen. Then I open a book like Marcella Hazan’s Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking, and it’s crystal clear why it’s allowed valuable shelf space in my cluttered kitchen.
Recipes as simple as tomato sauce made with only tomatoes, butter, onion and salt come alive with descriptions such as:
“There is nothing inherently crude about tomato sauce. Quite the contrary: No other preparation is more successful in delivering the prodigious satifactions of Italian cooking than a compentently execute sauce with tomatoes; no flavor espresses more clearly the genius of Italian cooks than the freshness, the immediacy, the richness of good tomatoes adroiitly matched to the most suitable choice of pasta.”
Essentials is quite literally essential for anyone who wants to create authentic Italian dishes. The recipes focus on the quality of ingredients and the methods for preparing those ingredients to maximize the flavor and experience. Few recipes require more than 5 ingredients.
The instructions are comforting, as Marcella makes you feel as though she is in the kitchen with you. From her Bolognese Meat Sauce recipe, she instructs: “When the tomatoes begin to bubble, turn the heat down so that the sauce cooks at the laziest of simmers, with just an intermittent bubble breaking through to the surface.”
Essentials is the perfect volume, for both seasoned foodies and beginner cooks alike. The introductions and recipes read as though you are cooking beside your Italian grandmother. Remarkable, given that I am only Italian in spirit!
Still good despite revisionism by William D. Colburn
I was tempted to give this book one star out of spite, but it really still is a five-star work. Had I known that this version of the cookbook had been updated for modern tastes I would have bought a copy of the original on the used market instead. But despite the revisionism in the cookbook it still is very good.
For some reason I’ve never been able to articulate, I’ve spent about 35 years of my life shunning French and Italian food as not being worthy of interest. Mario Batali got me over my phobia of Italian food and French fell in right behind it without any prompting. I recently realized that I didn’t own any of the classic cookbooks for those cuisines, so I’ve started to pick them up.
This is about as classic as you can get for Italian cooking in the United States. It is well written and instructive; and it definitely lives up to its reputation. I’ve only had it for a day now, so I haven’t cooked anything yet, but it has been a great read so far. I’m glad that it still includes classic items such as tripe and brains. I’m also glad that the recipes don’t appear to have been time or ingredient compressed.
I’ll probably still buy the original on the used market, but I don’t think I’ll regret owning this revision.
Probaby THE most essential book on Italian cuisine in the English language by Brad
Among serious home cooks and many professional chefs, Hazan’s book is widely considered to be one of THE essential books on Italian cuisine.
All of her recipes are well written, well explained, well organized, and the flavors are well honed and she’s obviously been making (and teaching) them over and over again for years … and as a result, her book has a polished and reliable feel to it. Even if you momentarily lose your way and are faced with a leap of faith on some ingredient or technique, you quickly learn to trust Mrs Hazan’s advice and experience, because she earns it the hard way.
Her recipes range from the basic and reliable, to the sublime.
Classic Risotto ? It’s in there.
Want to make various types of fresh pasta from scratch ? It’s in there.
Braised Pork Chops in Browned Sage Butter ? A fabulous recipe. I loved it so much that I went out and bought a $160+ top of the line heavy duty covered saute pan in order to do it proper justice, and to be able to serve 4 people at a time.
If you’re the sort of foodie who understands and appreciates the differences between “Classic Italian” and “Italian-American” cuisine, and if you cook either at home with any degree of regularity, then this is THE book for you.
All glowing praise aside, I do have a few minor nits:
1) Although this book represents a welcome giant step beyond mere “Italian American” in the direction of Classic and Authentic Italian, the authoress could have gone still further, but didn’t. For instance - there’s not nearly as much focus on seafood in this book as there is in Italy. Also, sausage making dealt with fairly minimally, and Offal is barely mentioned at all. For those sort of things, you need to go to a hardcore gourmand chef like Mario Batali. Most mainstream home cooks won’t bat an eye missing such things, so I can’t really complain too vigorously … but I adore offal, and I noticed its absence.
2) Marcella is most assuredly old school - and you either love or hate that. I happen to love it, but I thought it worth mentioning. Case in point - all pasta in this book is made the old fashioned way … flour, egg yolks, and rolling pin, and occasionally a dowel or (if you’re really a geek) a chitarra. You wont find any mention of taking shortcuts with semolina flour and water, or using food processors or electric rollers/extruders in this book, and if you were to ask her in person she’d probably shake her finger at you in a disapproving fit of apoplexy, while remarking that pasta that’s extruded like […] matter will taste like it too. Ok, I’m exaggerating a bit, but not much. Anyway, hardcore traditionalists love and admire her for her commitment to traditional techniques.
Glowingly recommended.
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