5. Toss your hot pasta with parm.
Everyone knows that most Italian pastas can benefit from a topping of grated Parmigiano-Reggiano. But Marcella recommended tossing hot, freshly drained pasta with a few spoonfuls of Parm before tossing it with the sauce. The result? The cheese melts instantly on the hot noodles, infusing them with a whole new layer of flavor.
6. Plain-Jane Celery deserves your love.
Everyone knows that celery has an eternal place in the “trinity” of aromatics, along with onion and carrot. But Marcella took that love further, sharing several recipes that showcase the salty, vegetal flavor of celery itself. Now, whenever I have a half-used bunch of celery in the fridge, I chop up a couple stalks (along with every last celery leaf in the bunch), saute it with some chopped onion, add a can of tomatoes, and cook up a tomato sauce with a mysteriously addictive something “extra.”
7. Resist the urge to undercook your vegetables.
Forget about pasta. For years, “al dente” was also the most fashionable and “correct” way to cook vegetables, too. But Marcella knew better. She lamented the grassy, crunchy blandness of undercooked vegetables, and reminded me that they only really taste like themselves when they’re cooked enough. Now, I aim for the happy medium between crunch and mush.
8. The oven is the best way to cook fish.
Searing fish fillets in a pan always intimidated me. But it wasn’t until I started trying Marcella’s seafood recipes that I realized how many of them rely on baking rather than pan-searing. Now, instead of stressing about whether my fish fillets will stick, I rest easy, knowing they’re baking to perfect tenderness in the oven, usually alongside something equally delicious.
Baked Fish and Potatoes with Rosemary and GarlicGet This Recipe
9. Good canned tuna is better than fresh.
Before Marcella, I thought that canned tuna was in my rearview mirror. I was haunted by way too many tuna-sandwich school lunches. But Hazan taught me to seek out oil-packed solid tuna, which is as different from the soggy chunk light stuff as whipped cream is from fat-free non-dairy creamer. Whether folded into pastas, tossed into bean salads, or tucked into sandwiches, “good” canned tuna is so superior to fresh that it almost seems like an absurd cosmic joke.
Dining and Cooking