Marcella Cucina

I've had Marcella Hazan's "Marcella Cucina" sitting on my kitchen shelf for at least 10 years.  I don't remember when I bought this book or why, except that my mother had made one of Marcella's chicken recipes on one of my visits home.  I remember really enjoying it, so I think I probably picked this up after that trip. 

As I started going through the book last week I really thought I had made something from it, but the more I dug into it, the more I realized I never had.  This makes no sense to me! There are so many really good recipes here and the photography is gorgeous!  Marcella also explains different techniques (along with photos) and the history of some of the recipes or techniques throughout the book which is fun to read and helpful. 

One of my goals with this project was to not only make recipes out of all of these cookbooks, but to challenge myself and try something that veers from my norm.  I also want to make recipes using ingredients I don't typically cook with.  So, the recipe I chose from this book was"Breaded Veal Patties with Bell Pepper, Scallions and Tomato".  Both my husband and I like veal, but it's not a meat I typically buy and cook with.  It's expensive and if you don't know how to cook it, it can get tough.  So then you've just spent a lot of money and have tough meat for dinner!

For this recipe you use ground veal, which actually was pretty reasonable.  It's also a bit lower in fat and saturated fat than ground beef so not a bad choice either.  (Well, until you mix it with some of the other ingredients!)

The recipe calls for a pound of ground veal, that is mixed with chopped red peppers and scallions.  It is then combined with fresh bread crumbs, milk (1-1/4 cups!), Parmesan cheese and an egg.  When I was mixing it up, it was pretty liquid-y and I couldn't see how I was going to make patties out of it.  For the first time I really thought I was going to have a flop and we'd have to order pizza for dinner!  But after a minute or two of mixing, the liquid was absorbed and the patties came together easily.  They were softer than fish cakes or a typical hamburger, but they definitely became nice patties.  They are then covered in dry bread crumbs and placed in a hot pan with olive oil and butter and cooked for about a minute on each side to brown them.  Canned tomatoes and juice are added to the skillet and they cook for another 15 minutes until the sauce thickens. Served with the tomato sauce, these veal patties are nice and tender, colorful.  The peppers and scallions add a nice but not overwhelming flavor and help flavor the tomato sauce.  We enjoyed them over Cavatelli with a salad on the side.

I've found a number of other recipes I'll try from this book - Baked Eggplant Rolls with Mozzarella and Pecorino Cheese, Baked Tomatoes Stuffed with Salmon, Garlic and Capers and a Barley and Cannellini Bean Soup.  This may come off the kitchen shelf more often now and end up being one of my more tattered cookbooks!