cooking the books
Posted: October 19, 2010 Filed under: books, cooking 4 Comments »Even though I read and watched Julie and Julia, I never really gave serious thought about cooking my way through an entire cookbook. However, I just read this post by Michael Ruhlman about Carol Blymire, which led me to her blogs that described how she cooked her way though the French Laundry Cookbook and is currently cooking her way through Alinea at Home.
I’m intrigued!
But what cookbook to choose? Nothing too weird. But something much better than, say, Rachael Ray.
I might check out Ad Hoc at Home and see if it’s something I should add to my Christmas list. Or should I work on my baking skills? Hmmm.
I think that cooking your way through Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan would be rewarding and possibly life-changing as the recipes are wonderful, and it is widely regarded as the best Italian cookbook available. I have never made a recipe from the book I didn’t like and many of them are in my everyday repertoire.
If you do, I would suggest that you source out and use very high quality pasta made with bronze dies as the taste is far superior to the pasta in the supermarket. My favorite is Pasta Setaro, which I am able to find in NYC at Buonitalia in The Chelsea Market, but I don’t know how easily available it is elsewhere. Rustichella d’Abruzzo is another excellent brand, which might be easier to find; I believe Whole Foods generally carries it.
There is also a good book called Great Food Without Fuss by Frances McCullough and Barbara Witt. It is unfortunately out of print but is usually available at Amazon or Jessica’s Biscuit. It’s liner is “simple recipes from the best cooks.”
I still recommend the Marcella book as being a fabulous experience.
Thanks for the suggestions! I just checked my library’s catalog, and we have the Marcella Hazan book–definitely going to look at that one. The zucchini parmesan on your blog looks absolutely delicious.
Why not go basic? Joy of Cooking.
You should definitely work on your baking skills. Practice! Practice! Practice! And then practice some more. Oh, don’t worry about what you will do with so much stuff, you know we will take care of that problem for you.