Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking: A Cookbook

From award-winning, bestselling “queen of Italian cooking” (Chicago Tribune), a culinary bible for anyone looking to master the art of Italian cooking.

Essentials of Italian Cooking is a culinary bible for anyone looking to master the art of Italian cooking, bringing together Marcella Hazan’s most beloved books, The Classic Italian Cook Book and More Classic Italian Cooking, in a single volume. Designed as a basic manual for cooks of all levels of expertise—from beginners to accomplished professionals—it offers both an accessible and comprehensive guide to techniques and ingredients and a collection of the most delicious recipes from the Italian repertoire. As home cooks who have used Marcella’s classic books for years (and whose copies are now splattered and worn) know, there is no one more gifted at teaching us just what we need to know about the taste and texture of a dish and how to achieve it, and there is no one more passionate and inspiring about authentic Italian food.

MARCELLA HAZAN was born in Cesenatico, a fishing village on the Adriatic in Emilia-Romagna, Italy’s foremost gastronomic region. After receiving her doctorates from the University of Ferrara in natural sciences and in biology, she lived and traveled throughout Italy. With the publication of The Classic Italian Cook Book and More Classic Italian Cooking (brought together in a single volume, Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking), her reputation as America’s premier teacher of Italian cooking spread throughout the country. Hazan died in 2013.