That's Italian!
We cut through the pasta to check out five Italian cookbooks and see which ones
can take the heat. By Natalie Danford. Illustration by Edwin Fotheringham.
According to Neil Simon, there are two laws in the universe: the law of gravity, and everybody likes Italian food. Perhaps that’s why Italian cookbooks flood bookstore shelves every year like a sea of red sauce. But which book is best? To find out, I held an Italian cook-off in my own kitchen, following recipes for potato gnocchi from five well-known Italian cookbooks. My husband, Paolo, a native Italian and a lifelong gnocchi lover, served as a one-man judging panel.
How to Cook Italian by Giuliano Hazan
(Scribner, $35)
I’ve always felt a kinship with Giuliano Hazan. My mother is a fabulous baker, which led me to wonder when I was younger whether people liked me for me or for her brownies. (Lest you think I exaggerate: A long-lost pal recently located me online, after two decades. “I think of you often,” she e-mailed, “and of the amazing cookies your mother used to make.”) Hazan’s mother, Marcella Hazan, almost single-handedly introduced authentic Italian cooking to the United States with 1973’s The Classic Italian Cook Book. That has to weigh on a guy.
But Hazan has more going for him than a famous last name. He can cook. His recipe produces cloudlike Yukon Gold potato gnocchi enrobed in a smooth and flavorful, if overly rich, Simple Butter and Tomato Sauce. (Hazan was the only author of the five to point out that gnocchi marry best with a smooth sauce.)
I have quibbles with the recipe — I found the instructions to be occasionally vague — but there is only one real problem with Hazan’s actual gnocchi: There aren’t enough of them. While Hazan claims that they serve four as a main course, Paolo and I polish them off by ourselves. An hour later, I hear a noise in the kitchen and find Paolo in front of the stove, preparing a most un-Italian snack: popcorn.
“Sorry,” he shrugs. “Still hungry.”
The Silver Spoon
(Phaidon Press, $40)
“That’s Italy’s best-selling cookbook,” I inform Paolo when I catch him leafing through this mammoth tome, which has more than 2,000 recipes for everything from penne arrabbiata to chopped mutton with prunes.
“When have you seen an Italian cook from a recipe?” he scoffs.
As I begin working on the potato gnocchi (one of 18 varieties), I think that if The Silver Spoon is a typical cookbook, I know why Italians don’t rely on them.
Each recipe is about a paragraph in length and full of mind-bending advice like instructions for how to press the gnocchi against “the underside of a grater.” I am surprised to see an egg in the recipe — something Paolo dismisses as “cheating.” Egg makes the dough easier to handle, but the end result is heavy, which these gnocchi are.
True Tuscan: Flavors and Memories from the Countryside of Tuscany by Cesare Casella
(Morrow Cookbooks, $25)
Cesare Casella doesn’t pull people from burning buildings, but he does something almost as heroic: He re-creates in New York City — at restaurants Beppe (recently sold) and Maremma Trattoria Toscana — Italian food in all its simple glory.
Yet Casella’s Basic Gnocchi are anything but basic. They incorporate two egg yolks, a whole egg, nutmeg, ricotta cheese, and grated parmesan cheese, along with flour and potatoes. His Fast Fresh Tomato Sauce is as advertised, but the gnocchi recipe takes hours as I struggle to unstick the soft dough from the cutting board.
When we finally sit down to eat, I understand Casella’s warning that the recipe “makes a lot.” I pop five or six morsels into my mouth and push my plate away. All that cheese and egg makes them incredibly filling.
Molto Italiano: 327 Simple Italian Recipes to Cook at Home by Mario Batali
(Ecco, $35)
Mario Batali is a one-man brand. His name appears on everything from silicone spatulas to pepper mills. In his trademark orange clogs, he’s hosted three different television shows. But Batali is primarily a chef and a restaurateur. And he exhibits all the signs of being a chef in this cookbook, meaning he uses restaurant techniques that are either unwieldy or unnecessary at home.
Batali’s gnocchi recipe concludes with instructions to cook the gnocchi in advance, shock them in ice water, and then toss them with canola oil. Precooking may be necessary at Babbo, Batali’s flagship New York City restaurant, which seats 90, but not for a recipe that serves four as a main course. I point out these instructions to Paolo, who looks grim and makes the sign of the cross.
Scott Conant’s New Italian Cooking by Scott Conant with Joanne McAllister Smart
(Broadway, $35)
Like Batali, Scott Conant is a New York City restaurant chef/owner (L’Impero and Alto), so I turn to his recipe for Yukon Gold Potato Gnocchetti with trepidation. I needn’t have worried. Conant may cook like an Italian, but he writes recipes like an American.
There’s only one tricky part to making gnocchi, and that’s knowing when to stop adding flour. Add too much and you’ll have potato bricks; add too little and they’ll dissolve when they hit the cooking water. Conant’s is the only recipe that offers specific guidelines and proposes making test gnocchi. (My method for the others is to lob a few pieces of dough to Paolo, who claims to be able to recognize the right proportion by taste.)
I am not nearly as enamored of the egg Conant puts into his gnocchi, nor of the shrimp and peas overpowered by rosemary that he puts on top of them.
In the best of all worlds, I decide, Conant would write Hazan’s recipes for him. Their collaborative gnocchi recipe would go something like this:
Ultimate Yukon Gold Gnocchi with Tomato Sauce
(loosely adapted from How to Cook Italian and New Italian Cooking)
Potato Gnocchi
Serves 4 to 6
2 pounds Yukon Gold potatoes (about 4 large potatoes)
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling and shaping
Salt for salting the cooking water
1. Scrub the potatoes and place them in a large pot. Add cold water to cover, place pot over high heat, and bring the water to a boil. Turn down to a simmer and cook until potatoes are just tender, 30 to 35 minutes. (Do not test too often.) Drain the potatoes and wait until they are just cool enough to handle, about 15 minutes. Generously flour a work surface, and then put the potatoes through the medium disk of a potato ricer and onto the floured work surface. (Potato skin will remain in the ricer — discard it.)
2. Sprinkle on one cup of the flour, and knead flour and potatoes to combine. Add additional flour, about a quarter cup at a time, until the dough holds together. (You may not use all the flour.) When it is ready, the dough should feel like the skin of your earlobe, although it will be slightly sticky.
3. To test the dough, bring a small pot of salted water to a boil. Roll a small piece of the dough into a rope about half an inch thick, and cut into three-quarter-inch-long pieces. Drop the test gnocchi into the boiling water, wait until they bob to the surface, and then count to 10. Drain and taste. The gnocchi should hold together (if not, add more flour to the dough) but have a soft texture. When the dough is satisfactory, move it aside, clean the work surface with a dough scraper, and then reflour the work surface.
4. Lightly flour 2 jelly-roll pans. (If you plan to freeze the gnocchi, line the pans with parchment and flour the parchment.) Divide the dough into 8 pieces. On the floured work surface, roll one piece of dough into a rope about half an inch in diameter. Cut the rope into three-quarter-inch-long pieces. Hold a fork vertically in one hand, with the back of the fork facing you. With an index finger, press one of the gnocchi horizontally against the front of the fork and let it fall onto a floured pan. Each of the gnocchi should have ridges on one side (to trap the sauce) and an indentation on the other. Repeat with remaining dough, keeping gnocchi in one layer on the pans.
5. Either freeze the gnocchi on the pans and then transfer them to plastic bags, or cook them the same day. (Gnocchi keep at room temperature for 4 to 5 hours; do not refrigerate.)
6. To cook gnocchi, fill a very large pot with water and bring to a boil. Salt generously (about 2 tablespoons of salt for 4 quarts of water) and add about a quarter of the gnocchi. (Do not thaw frozen gnocchi.) Do not stir the gnocchi. In a short time, they will bob gently to the surface. About 10 seconds later, scoop them out with a strainer, drain, and transfer to a serving bowl. Repeat with remaining gnocchi.
Tomato Sauce
4 cups canned peeled tomatoes with their juices,
coarsely chopped
1 medium yellow onion, peeled and halved
4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Salt
10 basil leaves
1. Combine the tomatoes, the onion, and 2 tablespoons of the oil in a medium pot and salt to taste. Place over medium heat and bring to a simmer. Simmer gently until all the liquid has evaporated, 30 to 45 minutes.
2. Puree the sauce through the medium disk of a food mill. Stir in the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil and spoon sauce over gnocchi. Garnish with basil leaves and serve immediately.