kaye16's Profile

Joined: December 21st, 2009

Pasta e Fagioli from Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking

An easy and delicious soup. I used lardons for the meat. We were thinking that chicken sausages would be good, saucisse de volaille or merguez de volaille, cut in quarters lenghtwise, then into little... read more >

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book reviews (64)
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kaye16's Reviews

33 recipe(s) reviewed. Showing 1 to 33Sort by: Title | Date | Rating

Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking

By Marcella Hazan
Knopf - 1992

Very simple, very delicious, got raves at my house. We're not big sweet eaters, but this is the kind of thing we like. Fresh fruit flavor, enhanced by sugar rather than drowned in it.

- I did not use any of the optional cloves; 12 whole ones sounds like it would be overwhelming.
- I forgot the bits of butter on the top, and can't say it was missed
- I cut the sugar back a bit, using maybe 7/8 cup, rather than one
- Finely chopped walnuts on the bottom might be nice
- A bit of ground cardamon in the batter might be nice

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Very good. Made the whole recipe and served it is a main for two people, this was 3 skewers each with 3 strips of meat per skewer. Easy and tasty.

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This was not a success. Good ingredients, but the result was blah and visually unappealing.

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We're not big fennel fans, but if you have to have it, this is a good way to go.

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Served this as a main. Very good and quite fast. Doesn't taste especially fishy, but the anchovies add an interesting depth of flavor.

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In a hurry? Have a sage plant in the yard? This is a quick sauce for a pasta dish, either fresh or stuffed.

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This must be the definitive carbonara sauce recipe. Really good. The portions are a bit strange. The recipe says it serves 6, using 20oz of pasta. I made a half recipe for a main for two people, but used only 6oz pasta rather than 10oz. That pasta amount was fine, but the sauce might have been a bit skimpy. But it tasted yummy.

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Sorry to see I hadn't written anything about this here. Just thinking about making it again.
I wrote a blog post about it when I made it last.

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This was a surprise hit. Cranberry beans are the same as borlotti beans, I discovered. Very easy to make. For Cooking Italy we made pappardelle, but most any chunky noodle would do (i.e., no spaghetti, etc.)
We got 4 servings as advertised.

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We had this as a main, but of course it could be a side or a starter or a course unto itself. However served, we liked it. It's a bit time-consuming, but easy to do.

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Seriously yummy. I served this as a main, but it would make a very nice starter indeed with smaller portions.
I had 400g of largish shrimp, which made about half a recipe. For this amount, I used all the water for the stock and the pot was very full of shrimp.

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Good! I used two small heads totalling about 1#; this served 2-3.

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A very nice way to finish off those Spinach and Ricotta Gnocchi (p262).

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Very good grilled chicken, although Hazan's instructions for butterflying the chickie seem a bit complicated. Also, I found this worked better grilling in the oven because the oily marinade tended to flare up on the bbq. Nevertheless. a very nice tasting bird.

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A bit of work but quite good. Smaller artichokes will be better than the bigger ones I had. A very pretty spring-green dish.

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I've served this as a salad, but it could also be used as finger food, part of a tray of crudités.
Good and simple.

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We didn't much like this. It was a lot of work with a so-so result.

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So easy, so yummy! For two, I had two slices for veal shank and used about half the other ingredients.

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It is a bit peculiar that the recipe title calls these potatoes "pan-roasted," since they're about as fried as can be. The potatoes are first fried until they are soft, then removed from the oil and allowed to cool. Then the oil is reheated and the potatoes fried again until they get a crispy, brown crust. Kind of refried potatoes. And very good. Indeed, the potatoes had a crispy outside and a soft inside. Since the initial cooking can be done ahead and the potatoes finished near serving time, this could be good for a larger meal. The potatoes took 15-20 minutes to finish off, but don't require much attention during that time beyond an occasional stir.

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Delicious! It cooks a long time and looks unpromising for most of that time, but it's really good. The portions are a bit skimpy. I think this would serve 3 best; 4 only it's a big dinner with other courses. (This from folks who are not heavy meat eaters.)

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An easy and delicious soup.
I used lardons for the meat. We were thinking that chicken sausages would be good, saucisse de volaille or merguez de volaille, cut in quarters lenghtwise, then into little wedges.
Might be nice to add some red pepper flakes with the sautéing onions/carrots/etc.

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Yum!

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No Amarone wine to be found; I used a bordeaux instead. Easy and delicious.

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Much better than I expected and kind of fun to make, especially the fork-flipping bit. Tomato allergy in the house, so I did these with the Butter and Sage Sauce (p192).

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A really good risotto, made with ingredients I usually have on hand.

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This must be *the* way to roast a chicken. Very good.

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Another easy and good pot-roasted chunk of meat. Nice to get the butcher to cut it into chunks that will fit your pan.

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This has been a winner of a recipe. A half recipe yields two big servings, so it would probably serve 6 as reported as part of a meal.

I make the eggplant strips should be something like 1"x1/2"x2"; I suspect Hazan would like them smaller, since she suggests this could be used as a spread.

This would be a good dish for a potluck meal, since it can easily be prepared ahead of time. You just need to add the salt at the last minute. Never had leftovers, so can't report on that!

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This was very good with haricots verts instead of regular green beans. A good company dish since the beans can be done ahead and the dish finished quickly, just before serving.

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Very good stuff. I made a half recipe as a main for two people. Easy and fast to make. The toasted bread crumb topping was an unexpectedly nice touch.

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This is an appealing dish because of the high proportion of mushrooms to potatoes, and there's not too much fat involved. It would be a good company dish, since it could be assembled ahead of time and popped in the oven half an hour before you want to serve it; halfway through it needs salting and a stir and that's it.

The instructions for reconstituting the dried shrooms are a bit fussy. I don't really see that boiling off the liquid added that much flavor. And then you don't have that bit of liquid to save for another use.

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These are not at all hard to make and delicious. I'm made some leaden spinach gnocchi before, so these were a real treat. We had four main portions (big enough, but not generous) from this recipe. Would probably make a nice side dish also.

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Another yummy dish from this book. Easy to make, simmers a long while to tenderize the meat.

Be sure to crush the juniper berries fairly fine, I think, to avoid strong bits of juniper taste (that's a taste that I don't like much on its own, but it brightens up many a meaty, stewy dish).

I had about 2/3 of the pork asked for, but made all the sauce. There was just enough for dinner for two, served over soft polenta.

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