{"id":3790,"date":"2026-04-29T13:11:29","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T13:11:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.haimangiato.com\/?p=3790"},"modified":"2026-04-29T13:41:32","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T13:41:32","slug":"easter-with-marcella","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.haimangiato.com\/pl\/easter-with-marcella\/","title":{"rendered":"Easter with Marcella"},"content":{"rendered":"

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There is a little house on the Giudecca Canal.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s painted in mustardy-yellow, it has a small garden, with currently in full bloom, purple and fragrant visteria, which spreads over a bottle-green pergola, leading to the entrance of the house. It\u2019s one of the very few detached houses along that canal and it so happens that it is us, that live there now.<\/p>\n

It also happened to be the house in which a renowned cook book author, Marcella Hazan, was a frequent guest and a good friend of the former occupants who lived here before us.<\/p>\n

On the very top floor of the house, right above the pink rooms (they are all painted in pink) there is an attic, in which, one afternoon I unearthed Marcella Hazan\u2019s cook books and brought them to the ground floor kitchen.<\/p>\n

Certain voices have whispered to my ears that the mustardy-yellow house had been a very happy house, frequently filled with culinary feasts and illustrious people. The first floor high-ceiling room used to be a reception room, less formerly called by me: an aperitivo<\/em> room, where our guests too, share a glass of a little something before dinner.
\nOne of our dining rooms we call The Fortuny Room, it\u2019s a rather grown up formal dining room of which walls are covered in an aged golden Fortuny fabric.<\/p>\n

I like to call the second dining room: The Lunch Room, because it\u2019s sunny and it\u2019s facing the garden. Funnily enough, we haven\u2019t had a meal there yet. I\u2019m still waiting for a few missing pieces, mainly for the marble table, which I cant wait to put to use again. But since it\u2019s Spring and the Easter was fabulously sunny and warm, we\u2019ve officially started lunches-in-the-garden season instead.<\/p>\n

Morning Coffee Cake<\/p>\n

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Marcella Hazan, born in Cesenatico in April 1924 (died in Florida September 2013), was a woman who started teaching science in a small town in Italy, in Emilia Romagna, but ended up teaching America (to begin with) how to cook Italian food, with a noticeable emphasis on the cucina regionale<\/em>– regional cuisine, which is what you\u2019ll find in Italy. It\u2019s a term which we are all (or almost all) familiar with by now, but back then it was a new concept and a way of learning about the Italian cuisine, its produce and the dishes, and the wines! – a section mastered by Victor, Marcella\u2019s husband. Most of us, who have an interest in Italy and Italian food culture, and in gastronomy in general, must have heard about Marcella Hazan, simply called Marcella, exactly like Julia (Julia Child).<\/p>\n

I believe that the cook book titled: \u201eThe Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking\u201d is what you\u2019ll be able to buy in most book stores today, but please don\u2019t quote me on this.<\/p>\n

What I found in the attic above the pink rooms were late editions of Marcella\u2019s books, pages turned yellow by now and they all have a very fond and personal dedication to the couple who had lived here before us. It was Marcella\u2019s memoir \u201eAmarcord. Marcella Remembers\u201d, that has drawn my attention the most. In Romagnolo<\/em>, the dialect of Romagna, amarcord<\/em> means: I remember, compressing the three slow-footed Italian words: io mi ricordo<\/em>, into a single swift one word.<\/p>\n

In the \u201eAmarcord\u201d there are two chapters dedicated to Venice, where Marcella and Victor lived in their top floor apartment with views over the Renaissance facade of the hospital and the Gothic basilica St. Giovanni e Paolo, the church in which they were married (many years after the civil ceremony).<\/p>\n

The couple ran very successful cooking classes, Marcella supervised the food and cooking, whilst her husband dedicated himself to the myriad of Italian wines, having his own books on the subject published, and very successfully too. The team started to teach and do workshops in America, then in Bologna- returning to her native Emilia Romagna, and after that in La Serenissima, in their top floor apartment. The guests came from all around the world including famous personalities, who wanted to have a taste of a good Italian food prepared by Marcella, and learn how to transport that Italian long convivial meals into their comes and onto their dining tables.<\/p>\n

Calle Della Testa (Cannaregio)<\/p>\n

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Yogurt, Lemon, Sambuca Cake <\/p>\n

Marcella didn\u2019t cook in our little yellow-mustard house, from what I\u2019ve learned, she, as well as many other guests and friends, enjoyed delicious, sociable and properly cooked meals, also in the garden, from where I\u2019m writing this post right now.<\/p>\n

Marcella Hazan was a prolific cook book author and magazine contributor, she participated in many tv programs, some of them filmed later on in her life, at the San Marco Square and at the foot of the Rialto Bridge. Sadly, when filming the last program she stood in the cold, wet and grey weather for far too long, wearing a yellow jacket waiting for her \u201emoment\u201d. She became badly ill on the following days, leading to many workshop cancellations. I got a strong impression that it was then when she decided to close the chapter in Venice, as with age she found it too hard to climb the bridges and the winter weather was turning to difficult to bear. The decision was made, to sell the Venetian attico<\/em> after almost twenty years of calling it home, and to move to Florida\u2019s much warmer climate.<\/p>\n

Calle della Testa (Cannaregio) is where Marcella and Victor had found their \u201eperfect\u201d apartment, in a large palazzo with a sixteenth-century courtyard and two large oleander trees.
\nI also read that the height of the building allowed them to look down on the neighbouring roofs and beyond them to the spire of the campanile in St. Mark\u2019s Square as well various church cupolas and bell towers.
\n\u201eThe apartment, which occupied the entire top floor of the large palazzo, had twenty-eight windows, and when one walked past them, each brought up a different framed view of Venice. It was like being inside a magic lantern\u201d, recalls Marcella.<\/p>\n

On the sunny Ester Monday the D\u00e9gustateur and I walked to the Calle della Testa. I could vaguely figure out, based on the images from \u201eAmarcord\u201d, from which terrace Marcella was looking out over at the basilica. I could almost picture her on the very top, setting a table on the terrace leading to her cosy kitchen. Everything else I left to my imagination giving space to some mystery in the whole story.<\/p>\n

Braised Squid in White Wine<\/p>\n

Yogurt, Lemon, Sambuca Cake<\/p>\n

Marcella and her husband purchased the Venetian apartment in 1980, then waited more than two years to obtain the permits they needed to complete the renovations they had decided on, and to make it suitable for their workshops. So the famous Cipriani Hotel on the Giudecca Island had become the first setting for Marcella\u2019s cooking school. What wonderful times they must have been\u2026..<\/p>\n

The very first cooking class meeting was not in the kitchen though, but in the open air market that has existed for close to one thousand years, at the foot of the Rialto Bridge. It\u2019s where I do my grocery shopping now, spotting and choosing what is glistening with freshness on the day, and what I\u2019m in the mood for at the moment. I don’t just go to the market without a vague plan in my mind. I always know, more or less, what I want to buy, but that can change depending on what\u2019s available and what looks absolutely wonderful at the moment. I also listen to the vendors and the whispers of the local knowledge, which is priceless.<\/p>\n

I had finished reading Marcella\u2019s memoir just before Easter and it just felt right to cook some of her dishes during the holiday period from the books I had found (I\u2019d already owned \u201eThe Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking\u201d).
\nMy main focus and interest however, fell on: \u201eMarcella Cucina. Marcella cooks by your side with an inspirational collection of new recipes that brings to your table the flavours, the textures, the essence of Italy\u201d, published in 1997, just before the apartment in Venice was sold in 1998.<\/p>\n

This volume simply appeared the most appealing to me, it seemed so familiar and dear, perhaps because nothing that appeared in the book was not a part of of their life in Venice.<\/p>\n

Marcella was very happy here living in her native country, but with time she found it hard to do all the walking and the humid cold winters, magical as they are, were not suitable for both of them anymore.<\/p>\n

Braised Squid in White Wine<\/p>\n

I chose and tried a few recipes, the ones that I found the most suitable for this time of year and an Easter break. But that is just the tip of the iceberg and I know that I\u2019ll enjoy cooking from that cook book more often.
\nHence for now, I\u2019m sharing with you the recipes that we particularly enjoyed (which I also modified mildly). In the kitchen, be it at home or a restaurant, it\u2019s normal to alter and adapt certain recipes to a different – new way of cooking, to changing tastes (less sugar in the pastries – that\u2019s a fact) and salutary habits. Cooking should be a joyous activity to satisfy our own taste buds.<\/p>\n

1. Braised Squid in White Wine with Spinach, Fresh Tomato and Chilli Pepper<\/a><\/p>\n

2. Fricasseed Chicken with Pancetta, Capers and Peppers<\/a><\/p>\n

3. Morning Coffee Cake with Chopped Apple, Pear and Sliced Banana<\/a><\/p>\n

4. Yogurt, Lemon and Sambuca Cake<\/a><\/p>\n

5. Raw Zucchini Salad with Mint and Tomato<\/a><\/p>\n

Buon appetito,<\/p>\n

Aleksandra xx<\/p>\n

Raw Zucchini, Mint and Tomato Salad<\/p>\n

Fricasseed Chicken with Capers, Peppers and Pancetta<\/p>\n

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