Anna Teresa Callen was someone you wanted to meet. Larger than life, intense, widely smiling or perhaps scowling when this matriarch of the kitchen was displeased. Anna was born in Naples and grew up there during World War II experiencing food shortages and German complexities. She fully acknowledged that those formative years were, well, formative.
In the kitchen, Anna never wasted a scrap. Every molecule of ingredients was guarded, used and savored when served to the table.
She wrote, I believe, ten cookbooks over a three decade span. This book, from 2008, was her finale, her truly grand finale. If you have a space on shelves for Italian cookbooks, this book needs to be there.
If you want to consider the debate between French and Italian cuisines, this book is a strong proponent for Italian. Yes, Italian recipes are often “simple.” Particularly when compared with the often complex French dishes that amaze us. Yet being “simple” does not mean you sacrifice anything: not in flavor, not in appearance, not in craftmanship. Consider this dish of Poached Fish with Green Sauce:
The poaching calls for a base of celery, carrot, onion, parsley, bay leaves, peppercorns and vinegar. That Green Sauce was used by Anna’s mother for everything: atop fish either grilled or poached, a dip for vegetables, and the perfect topping for a seafood salad. I suspect it would be ideal on poached chicken sauce. And the recipe? Garlic, bread crumbs, egg, anchovies, parsley, celery, vinegar and capers. Green by color, intense by flavor. [Yes, I’ll post the recipe here for poached fish with sauce in just a couple of days.]
Italian food here is not necessarily so “simple.” There is a Chicken Rollatini filled with Chicken Liver and Foie Gras. That Green Sauce is one of several in the Sauces chapter including a perfect Bolognese Meat Sauce and a quite different Genovese Meat Sauce.
Vegetables receive special treatment. How about String Beans with Cinnamon? Or Sweet and Sour Pearl Onions and Carrots? Now there’s a dish that might grace your Thanksgiving table.
There’s an entire chapter devoted to Veal. One to Rabbit [and poultry]. Even one for Variety Meats [tongue and other things that I will not be selecting].
Anna taught Italian cooking in New York City for decades. She perfected her craft and her recipes. That perfection is on display here on every page. This is a book to relish once a week. You might start with Black Fettuccine with Creamy Crab Sauce.