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This year’s must-read food memoir isn’t from a celebrity chef, a longtime restaurateur or even someone who finished culinary school. It’s from a woman who survived a harrowing, near-death experience to open her first and only restaurant at 26 years old.
I never got a chance to eat at Brucie, the celebrated Brooklyn restaurant chef Zahra Tangorra operated for six years. I happened to come across her name in Speaking Broadly, a 2022 zine from former Food & Wine editor Dana Cowin. Tangorra wrote an essay about the last sandwich she made for her dying father. It was so raw and full of heart that I felt compelled to message her.
Earlier this month, I finally met Tangorra, and moderated a talk with her at the West Coast launch event for her new memoir, “Extra Sauce: The Good, the Bad, and the Onions.” It was held at the Garibaldina Society in Highland Park, the most fitting of venues for a chef who claims her quarter Italian American heritage as her most defining quality.
“Extra sauce is how I like my pizza, and also how I fall in love,” writes Tangorra. During the event, she elaborated on her memoir’s title, which happens to be her philosophy for life, cooking, love and everything in between.
“Writing ‘Extra Sauce’ was like a reclamation for me of the things that maybe we feel are too much about ourselves that we should actually be really proud of,” she said.
As Tangorra weaves her tale of love and loss, family, friendship and immense grief, there is lots of humor, and plenty of lasagna. At Brucie, diners were encouraged to bring in their own pans for orders of lasagna to take home. During the pandemic, Tangorra started a pop-up called Zaza Lazagna, where she made pans of classic, meatless lasagna along with whimsical non-traditional varieties such as spinach-and-artichoke.
Tangorra shares her recipe for lasagna in the memoir, along with a handful of other recipes including the tomato butter from Brucie, her mother’s spanikopita and her father’s carrot cake. She starts her lasagna with a marinara sauce she bakes in the oven, then finishes with crushed tomatoes for a bright and bracing tomato flavor. It might be the best marinara sauce I’ve ever made, good enough to eat on its own with a spoon.
Below, you’ll find the recipe for Tangorra’s marinara sauce, her lasagna and three more lasagna recipes from our recipe archives. Maybe make one for someone you love, including yourself.
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Zahra Tangorra’s Marinara Sauce
Tangorra’s sauce starts with onions and whole garlic cloves cooked down in oil on the stove. You pour it all into a roasting pan with whole, peeled tomatoes, then bake the sauce until all the contents capitulate and meld into a cohesive sauce. It’s finished with canned crushed tomatoes, which gives the sauce a unique texture and bright finish.
Get the recipe.
Cook time: 45 minutes. Makes about 2 quarts.
(Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times )
Zaza Lazagna
Tangorra shares a recipe for her classic lasagna, made with marinara sauce, four different kinds of cheese and fresh pasta. You can easily cut the recipe in half, but why not fill your fridge with lasagna leftovers?
Get the recipe.
Cook time: 1 hour and 45 minutes. Serves 8 to 10.
(Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times)
Anthony Bourdain’s Lasagna
The late Anthony Bourdain put chicken livers in his ragu for extra richness and depth. And he cut the prep time with no-boil lasagna noodles.
Get the recipe.
Cook time: 4 hours. Serves 6 to 12.
(Kirk McKoy/Los Angeles Times)
Mexican-Style Lasagna
Former Times writer Lorenza Munoz uses rajas and onions in place of meat in what she calls her Mexican lasagna. She layers the vegetables with a combination of sour cream and cotija cheese.
Get the recipe.
Cook time: 1 hour 20 minutes. Serves 8 to 12.
(Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)
Artichoke and Portobello Mushroom Lasagna
This recipe calls for layers of fresh spinach, portobello mushrooms and artichokes. We published the recipe after a reader wrote in to our old Culinary SOS column asking for the lasagna recipe from Cafe Roka in Bisbee, Ariz. It’s creamy, rich and completely vegetarian.
Get the recipe.
Cook time: 2 hours. Serves 10 to 12.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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