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05/27/1999 Archived Entry: "Marcella Visits & There Are No Stupid Food Questions"

Marcella Hazan, the great Italian cooking teacher and cookbook author, and her husband, Victor, a wine writer in his own right, were on Food Talk yesterday, visiting New York from their new home in Sarasota, Florida. Marcella was very cute: She said that when they first moved to Florida last year her neighbors asked where she was from. When she answered “Venice” they said, “Oh, from just down the road.”

At the moment, the Hazans say the only thing they’re missing about Venice is the food markets, and the ability to simply go downstairs and shop daily in stores where they are on familiar terms with the proprietors. (I must say, it is a lifestyle that I very much appreciate -- that I daily thank the stars for -- living in Brooklyn.) They were complaining that everything is a trip in the car to the supermarket, and a half hour in another direction for the Italian delicatessen.

Now semi-retired (Marcella will continue to teach here and there, and Victor is finishing his opus on Italian wine), they are, however, very happy to be living near their son, Giuliano, also a cooking teacher, who seven weeks ago produced a grand-daughter, Gabriella.

Although not on the same level of happiness, they were also pleased to discover a good Italian restaurant in Sarasota. It’s called Mediterraneo, 1970 Main St. (at Links Ave.); (941) 365-4122.

Marcella’s last book, Marcella Cucina (meaning Marcella Cooks), is a collection of recipes she gathered from years of traveling around Italy, poking into pots and cooking with other home cooks and the occasional restaurant chef. Marcella is always looking for what Italians call “genuine” food, not fancy food for rarefied tastes. Even when she creates a dish herself -- which she does, too -- it’s from the Italian home cook’s point of view -- which is to take the best of the season (nay, the best of the day or of the moment in the market) and prepare it simply to highlight its natural flavor. Yes, there are complex dishes in the Italian repertoire, but they are never at the sacrifice of those principals.

When Marcella was writing Marcella Cucina she passed a few recipes on to me, just to see what I thought. She was particularly excited about this one, and so was I. I’ve made it many times since. Here’s how it appears in the book:

Swordfish Sardinian-Style with Mint and Saffron

from Marcella Cucina by Marcella Hazan (HarperCollins, 1997)

For 4 to 6 persons


1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 1/2 tablespoons finely chopped garlic
About 35 small fresh mint leaves, torn into bits
1 cup dry white wine
A large pinch of saffron
1 cup canned Italian plum tomatoes, or peeled, fresh ripe tomatoes, chopped up
Salt
Chopped fresh or dried red chili pepper, to taste
2 1/1 pounds fresh swordfish steaks, about 1 inch thick

1. Choose a sauté pan or skillet that can later contain all the fish without overlapping, put in the olive oil and garlic, and turn on the heat to medium. Cook the garlic, stirring once or twice, until it becomes colored a very pale gold.

2. Add the mint, stir quickly three or four times, then add the white wine and the saffron. When the wine has simmered a minute or so and the scent of alcohol has subsided, add the chopped tomato, salt, and chili pepper. Cook at a very lively simmer, stirring occasionally, until the fat begins to separate from the sauce, about 15 or 20 minutes.

3. Strip away the skin that circles the fish steaks and, if they are very large, cut them into pieces no longer than 4 inches. Put the fish in the pan, sprinkling it with salt and turning it over a couple of times in the sauce. Cook, at a lively heat, for 3 minutes on one side and 2 to 3 minutes on the other. Transfer the entire contents of the pan to a warm serving platter and bring to the table at once.

Ahead-of-Time-Note: You can prepare everything through step 2 several hours in advance. When ready to serve, reheat the sauce at a gentle simmer, then turn up the heat and put in the fish.


There Are No Stupid Food Questions

As far as I am concerned, there are no stupid food and cooking questions. In fact, as soon as someone says that they are embarrassed about the question they are about to ask, I know a good one is coming up.

Here are two good ones from Diane Doll, who says “I am a dedicated cook with many years experience, so these questions strike me as particularly dumb, but, I'm still an eager learner.”

She asks:

“1) Being an expiration date-phobic, I never know how to judge whether my sour cream has gone bad. It's hard to tell by smell. Of course. little green things confirm, but how far beyond expiration date of an open container can you go?”

And:

“2) In recipes that tell you to heat a non-sick pan to ‘hot’, I find it plays havoc with the pan, sometimes causing the coating to flake away. Then I throw it out. Where am I going wrong?

Answers:

1) Sour cream is fine to eat as long as it hasn’t grown anything -- like blue or green mold. Even in that case, I have been known, when desperate for sour cream, to spoon off the surface mold and use what is underneath. This is not strictly recommended because not all molds are harmless and many will send roots deep into a food without the roots being detectable. But I’m still here to talk about it.

I just bought a carton of sour cream about two weeks ago and the expiration date is three weeks from now. If I had not opened the sour cream I’d bet it would be fine for several weeks -- at least -- after the expiration. Once opened, however, it would spoil faster.

Actually, it’s almost frightening how long some foods keep these days. Have you looked at the expiration date of cream cheese? A package bought this week has a last date of sale sometime around Christmas.

2) Strictly speaking you shouldn’t heat a conventional no-stick coated pan to a very high heat, although I know there are recipes that instruct you to do so. Indeed, when I grill scamorza (essentially aged mozzarella) Neapolitan style (see Naples At Table for a further explanation of that -- delicious!) I do heat my no-stick pan until a drop of water dances on the surface. I haven’t had any flaking problems with any of my rather high-quality pans, but I could see where an inexpensive pan might shed its coating after repeated high-heat treatments. Also, an inexpensive pan is likely to warp on very high heat.

Diane, buy a better quality pan and you shouldn’t have that problem. My favorite cheap no-stick pan is a T-Fal, which has a base that is supposedly warp-resistant (so far, so good), but I think it is too flimsy a pan to heat on high heat. I use it mainly for eggs and omelets.