Marcella Says…

I love to cook. I don't like doing dishes but I love to cook. Or maybe it is truly that I love to eat what has been prepared with love and intention. Cooking for one or twenty, it is the same excitement and desire to nurture. Maybe cooking is simply a ritual – kitchen magic at its best. My stove becomes sacred space and my tools are knives and cutting boards. The magical ingredients are vegetables and spices, salt, olive oil; sometimes meat. I set the table on average for at least three people with the intention of nourishing those that I love. When I call my family down for dinner, they may only sit for fifteen minutes, filling their stomachs, chatting and often laughing together. I sit after spending on average over an hour preparing that space for them – creating a meal that relaxes and fulfills more than just their dietary needs. I smile as someone takes second helpings and I prod my youngest to eat something green. If I'm trying a new recipe, I ask for comments to see if I should make it again. I don't share how I spent the morning reading through cookbooks, shopping for groceries or harvesting from the garden. It is rare that anyone actually assists me as I prepare salads, marinade meat or make a pie. Sometimes I wish I could share my excitement and other times I am content to putter and prep and cook.

My husband and I often share a look or a smile over the banter of our children, joining in or simply enjoying that moment in time when we all share together. And that moment fills me with joy. Those fifteen minutes on most days brings our family to vivid life and then everyone fades back to their corners in the house. It feels fleeting, almost mundane – but the magic still fills my kitchen.

Marcella Says…

"Flavor reaches into what may be our deepest source of pleasure. The happiness that food can arouse is an endlessly renewable resource and has the capacity to outlast every other drive that propels our lives. It fades away only when life itself begins to. The kind of flavor I am thinking of has no other agenda but to express the truth that has gone into the making of the dish. Fidelity to that truth leads to the cooking that I strive to practice in my kitchen…" Marcella Hazan in Marcella Says…Italian Cooking Wisdon from the Legendary Teacher's Master Classes.