Receta Fish in Crazy Water
Marcella and Victor Hazan, as loving and giving
a couple as one could ever hope to know.If I’d never been
introduced to Marcella Hazan, my cooking would have been so much poorer for
it. Marcella died last week at her home
in Naples, Florida where she and her inspirational muse and husband of 58 years, Victor Hazan, had
retired some years ago. It was a loss that
countless numbers of us felt deeply. Her
readers, her dear husband and her devoted son, Giuliano, were all stunned
because up until the very last she was sharing her infinite wisdom with us via
Facebook, of all places. I know this
only too well as I had not only ‘friended’ her but been the recipient of her
advice on several occasions. I’d written
about the Italian disdain for cheese coming anywhere near seafood. She shot right back that she’d changed her
mind about that particular taboo. She
also wrote me when I had a question about a strawberry dessert. She was endlessly generous with her time and
I can’t tell you how the food writer in me was overwhelmed that I would hear
from this extraordinary authority who surely had better things to do.
Marcella was a marvel who introduced
America to all the pleasures of Italy in a series of cookbooks, at least one of
which should be in every good cook’s kitchen.
If I were starting out without one, I’d chose “The Essentials of Classic
Italian Cooking” (Knopf Doubleday 1992).
This compendium was her 4th book and does for Italian cooking
what Julia Child did for French in her “Mastering the Art of French
Cooking”. But you can’t go wrong with
any of her 14 books and today’s recipe came from her next book published five years after "Essentials" by Harper Collins.
Marcella’s books are like listening to her
voice. And the great gift to home cooks
is that Marcella was one herself. She
did not know a thing about cooking when she met Victor Hazan, an Italian-born
New Yorker. She had a doctorate in
natural sciences and biology from the University of Ferrara when the two married
and she was whisked off to live in New York. She did come from a family of
great cooks and she admitted that she had a very clear memory of the flavors she’d
tasted at home. She found that she was
highly adept at re-creating those in her new American kitchen. She must have been because she started giving cooking lessons in her apartment kitchen. She then caught the eye of Craig Claiborne, the extraordinarily influential food editor
of the New York Times. He asked for recipes which he published and
which led to her first book.
What differentiated
Marcella’s work from anyone else’s was its absolute authenticity. She never allowed American or British
influences to seep into her traditional Italian recipes. Even her ingredients were those found in
Italian kitchens. She made few exceptions but only for things not readily available
outside Italy. She was all about working
with your hands and not machinery. She
loved the control of stovetop cooking versus using the oven. That is not to say her recipes were
complicated: Because they are truly Italian, they are simple, direct and full
of flavor. And her writing is peppered
with personal reminiscences. I adore
reading her introductions every bit as much as I love eating her food. So when I was thinking of what to post in her
honor, that I had not posted before (list follows), I remembered a dish I made
last summer and the wonderful way she wrote about it. It’s for fish that’s poached in a very
simple, but overwhelmingly flavorful broth.
It’s simple as anything but to achieve the full flavor, don’t cut back
on the cooking time of the broth. It will reward you
with Marcella’s wisdom. And since I
cannot possibly tell you any better than she herself can, here, in her own
words is the recipe.
Recipe for Fish in Crazy
Water or Pesce all’acqua pazza
from Marcella Hazan in “Marcella Cucina”
Serves 4. Active Time: 35 minutes Total Time 1 hr 30 minutes
"One of the most
frequently recurring conversational expressions in the dialect of my native
Romagna is ‘anicreid’, "I don't believe it." That skepticism is a
characteristic I share with people of my region. When a dish has a fanciful
name, I resist trying it, feeling that it has been dressed up to cover up a
lack of substance.
Had it been up to
me, I never would have sampled that Neapolitan creation, fish in crazy water.
"What's crazy water got to do with cooking and anyway, who wants to eat
fish in water?" Such were my thoughts, until my friend from Amalfi,
Pierino Jovine, one day simply brought the dish to the table without asking or
telling. Now, I am the one who goes crazy over it.
Water is what brings
together all the seasoning ingredients, the tomatoes, garlic, parsley, chili
pepper, salt, and olive oil. They simmer in it for a full 45 minutes,
exchanging and compounding their flavors, producing a substance that is denser
than a broth, looser, more vivacious, and fresher in taste than any sauce, in
which you then cook the fish." -- Marcella Hazan in "Marcella Cucina"
1-1/2
- pounds fresh, ripe tomatoes
- 3 large
- garlic cloves, peeled and sliced very thin
- 2
- tablespoons very finely chopped parsley
- Chopped
- red chili pepper, 1/8 teaspoon or to taste
- 1/4 cup
- extra virgin olive oil
- A 1-1/2-
- to 2-pound red snapper, filleted with its skin left on
- Optional: 4 slices
- of day-old or grilled sourdough bread for 4 persons. *MM: To me this is not an
- option but an essential part of this dish
- 1. Peel the tomatoes
- raw using a swiveling-blade vegetable peeler, and chop them roughly with all
their juice and seeds. The yield should be about 2 cups.
2. Choose a saute
pan in which the fish fillets can be subsequently fit flat without overlapping.
Put in the water, garlic, chopped tomatoes, parsley, chili pepper, olive oil,
and salt. Cover the pan, turn the heat to medium, for 45 minutes.
3. Uncover the pan,
turn up the heat, and boil the liquid until it has been reduced to half its
original volume.
4. Add the fish,
skin facing up. Cook for 2 minutes, then gently turn it over, using two
spatulas. Add a little more salt and cook for another 12 minutes or so.
5. Serve promptly
over the optional bread slice.