Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking - Marcella Hazan [6]
How to judge it The color must be a deep, rich brown, with brilliant flashes of light. When you swirl the vinegar in a wine glass, it must coat the inside of the glass as would a dense, but flowing syrup, neither splotchy nor too thin. Its aroma should be intense, pleasantly penetrating. A sip of it will deliver balanced sweet and sour sensations, neither cloying nor too sharp, on a substantial and velvety body. It is never inexpensive, and it is too precious and rare ever to be put up in a container much larger than a perfume bottle. The label must carry, in full, the officially established appellation, which reads: Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale di Modena. All other so-called balsamic vinegars are ordinary commercial wine vinegar flavored with sugar or caramel, bearing no resemblance to the traditional product.
How to use it True balsamic vinegar is used sparingly. In a salad it never replaces regular vinegar; it is sufficient to add a few drops of it to the basic dressing of olive oil and pure wine vinegar. In cooking, it should be put in at the very end of the process or close to it so that its aroma will carry through into the finished dish. Aceto balsamico is marvelous over cut, fresh strawberries when they are tossed with it just before serving. Regrettably, balsamic vinegar has become a cliché of what is sometimes described as “creative” cooking, in somewhat the same way that tomato and garlic were once clichés of spaghetti-house Italian cooking. It should not be used so often or so indiscriminately that its flavor loses the power to surprise and its emphatic accents become tiresome with repetition.
BASIL
Basilico
The most useful thing one can know about basil is that the less it cooks, the better it is, and that its fragrance is never more seductive than when it is raw. It follows, then, that you will add basil to a pasta sauce only after it is done, when it is being tossed with the pasta. By the same consideration, that most concentrated of basil sauces, pesto, should always be used raw, at room temperature, never warmed up. Occasionally, one cooks basil in a soup or stew or other preparation, sacrificing some of the liveliness of its unfettered aroma in order to bond it to that of the other ingredients. If you are in doubt, however, or improvising, put it in at the very last moment, just before serving.
How to use basil Use only the freshest basil you can. Don’t make do with blackened, drooping leaves. If you grow your own, pick only what you need that day, preferably plucking the leaves early in the morning before they’ve had too much sun. When you are ready to use the basil, rinse it quickly under cold running water or wipe the leaves with a dampened cloth. Unless the recipe calls for thin, julienned strips, it’s best not to take a knife to basil. If you do not want to put the whole leaves in your dish, tear them into smaller pieces with your hands, rather than cutting them. Do not ever use dried or powdered basil. Many people freeze or preserve basil. I’d rather use it fresh and, if it isn’t available, wait until its season returns.
BAY LEAVES
Alloro
Bay may be the most versatile herb in the Italian kitchen. It is used in pasta sauces, it aromatizes such different preserved foods as goat cheese in olive oil or sun-dried figs, it finds its way into most marinades for meat, it is the ideal herb for the barbecue: on a fish skewer, or over calf’s liver, or even in the fire itself. There is no more agreeable match than bay leaves with pears cooked in red wine or with boiled chestnuts.
What to get Bay leaves dry beautifully and keep indefinitely. Buy only the whole leaves, not the crumbled or powdered, and keep them in a tightly closed glass jar in a cool cupboard. Before using, whether the leaves are dried or fresh, wipe each leaf lightly with a damp cloth.
Note If you have a garden or terrace or balcony, bay is a hardy perennial that grows quickly into a handsome