Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking - Marcella Hazan [19]
Using sage If available, sage should be used fresh, as it always is in Italy. Otherwise, the same principle holds that applies to rosemary: Dried whole leaves are acceptable, powdered sage is not. Sage grows well if not subjected to extremes of cold or humidity and a mature plant will produce enough leaves from spring to fall to fill most kitchen requirements. It puts out beautiful purple blooms, but it is advisable to trim the flower-bearing tips of the branches to promote denser foliage.
Note When using either dried rosemary or dried sage leaves, chop the first or crumble the second to release flavor and use about half the quantity you would if they were fresh.
TOMATOES
Pomodori
The essential quality tomatoes must have is ripeness, achieved on the vine. Lacking it, all they have to contribute to cooking is acid. When truly ripe and fresh, they endow the dishes of many cuisines with dense, fruit-sweet, mouth-filling flavor. The flavor of fresh tomatoes is livelier, less cloying than that of the canned, but fully ripened fresh tomatoes for cooking are still not a common feature of North American markets, except for the six or eight weeks during the summer when they are brought in from nearby farms. When you are unable to get good fresh tomatoes, rather than cook with watery, tasteless ones, it’s best to turn to the dependable canned variety.
What to look for in fresh tomatoes If there is a choice, the most desirable tomato for cooking is the narrow, elongated plum variety. It has fewer seeds than any other, more firm flesh and less watery juice. Because it has less liquid to boil down, it cooks faster, yielding that fresh, clear flavor that is characteristic of so many Italian sauces. If there are no plum tomatoes, measure the ones you have to choose from by the same standards. It doesn’t matter whether they are large or small, if they are smoothly rounded or furrowed. What matters is that they be densely fleshed and ripe and that, in the pot, they produce tomato sauce, not tomato juice.
In Italy, there are other varieties of tomatoes, besides the plum, that are used for sauce. In Rome there is a marvelous, deeply wrinkled, small, round variety, locally called casalini. There are also perfectly smooth, round tomatoes, one kind about 2 inches in diameter that comes from Sicily, and then marvelous tiny ones, slightly bigger than cherry tomatoes, that come from Campania and are known as pomodorini napoletani. At the end of the season, both of the latter kind are detached from the plant together with part of the vine’s branches and hung up in any cool part of the house. It’s a practice that provides a source of ripe cooking tomatoes through most of the winter. There is no reason why it can’t be adopted elsewhere. One important point to be aware of is that the variety should be of the kind that hangs firmly by its stem, that does not drop off. Air must circulate around the tomato, which must not sit on any surface or it will develop mold at the place of contact.
What to look for in canned tomatoes When buying canned tomatoes, if one has a choice one should look for whole, peeled plum tomatoes of the San Marzano variety imported from Italy. They are the best kind to use and, if possible, settle for no other. If your markets do not carry them, try any of the other whole peeled tomatoes, buying one can at a time until you find a brand that satisfies the following criteria: There should be no pieces, no sauce in the can, nothing but whole, firm-fleshed tomatoes, with a little of their juice. When cooked, there should be depth to their flavor, a satisfying fruity quality that is not too cloyingly