Marcella Hazan's Pasta ricotta e spinaci

This week, Marcella's recipe for Pasta with Spinach and Ricotta Cheese, and my thoughts about a new documentary on her life

I’m a long time fan of Marcella Hazan. I mean a long time. I’m old enough to have bought her first two books, The Classic Italian Cookbook and More Classic Italian Cooking, when they first came out about 50 years ago. I can still remember as a high school student anxiously picking up a paperback copy of Classic Italian Cooking at a bookshop Grand Central Station and virtually devouring it on the train back home. I bought every other book she wrote, too, right up to her final work Ingredienti, co-authored with her husband Victor and published posthumously in 2016.

As for so many others, the book was a revelation for me. It opened my eyes to Italian cookery beyond the dishes from Campania and Puglia that I grew up with. And perhaps more than the recipes, Marcella’s thoughtful advice on how to be a proper Italian cook resonated with me. No other person except Angelina has had a bigger influence on my culinary journey. And of course, I wasn’t alone. She introduced Italian food to the US and more broadly the English speaking world. Even today, in my opinion her Essentials of Italian Cooking, a compendium of Classics and More Classics published in 1992, remains the single best Italian cookbook in the Englsh language.

Marcella, the film

So you know that when Director Peter Miller and his promoter (who it turns out is a long time fan of Memorie di Angelina) recently reached out to invite me to watch Peter’s new documentary on Marcella’s life, of course I jumped at the chance. For anyone who admires Marcella, or just loves Italian food, this informative, poignant and funny documentary is a must watch. Even a long time Marcella fan like myself learned a few things I didn’t know about her, while having a few chuckles and holding back a few tears along the way.

Pasta ricotta e spinaci, my favorite Marcella pasta…

Seeing the film inspired me to go back and look at my old, well thumbed copies of Marcella’s cookbooks from back in the day. And I thought I’d share one of her recipes that’s very special for me.

Everyone knows Marcella’s signature four ingredient tomato sauce. But the recipe that really caught my eye way back when, first in More Classic Italian Cooking and later republished in Essentials, was pasta ricotta e spinaci, pasta dressed with spinach and ricotta, which Marcella says she discovered at a restaurant in Palermo. Of course, spinach and ricotta is a classic pairing in Italian cookery, but you typically use it as a filling for fancy stuffed pastas like ravioli, cannelloni and crespelle. Here things are turned inside out, with the delicious pairing serving as a dressing for dry pasta, turning it into something you can enjoy on the daily. A genius idea!

Anyway, this recipe has been part of my regular rotation ever since. It’s almost as simple as Marcella’s tomato sauce and, to my mind, every bit as delicious in its own way. I usually make a slightly different version these days, but her original recipe is still a delight. It’s especially appealing at this time of year, when lovely young, tender spinach is at the height of its season.

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Want more Marcella?

Then why not stop by Lisa McLean’s Cooking with Marcella? As Lisa puts it:

My goal is simple: to cook my way through Marcella Hazan’s books, following her recipes exactly as she wrote them, without any modifications or modern reinterpretations. Along the way, I’ll explore the regional and historical significance of each dish, highlight any differences between early and later editions of her books, and share insights into the techniques that define Italian cooking.

Sounds like fun—and delicious—doesn’t it? Definitely worth checking out.

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You might also like…

Ravioli nudi (Spinach and Ricotta Dumplings)

Ravioli nudi, or “nude ravioli”, also known as gnudi, malfatti, gnocchi verdi, or the more literal gnocchi di ricotta e spinaci—are dumplings made with the usual spinach and ricotta filling for regular ravioli without their usual pasta “clothing”. Often thought of as a speciality of Tuscany—they are also sometimes called strozzapreti toscani—they are popular all over Italy.

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Cannelloni ricotta e spinaci (Spinach and Ricotta Cannelloni)

Cannelloni are probably the easiest stuffed pasta you can make. You simply roll square sheets of fresh egg pasta around the stuffing of your choice, cover them with a sauce, bake them for about 20 minutes in a hot oven until they’re bubbling not and lightly brown on top, and you’re good to go. Once you’ve mastered the basic technique making cannelloni, you can let you imagination run wild; the possible variations are endless.

Classic cannelloni make for substantial eating, stuffed as they are with a hearty meat mixture and covered with béchamel. In this lighter meatless version, the cannelloni are stuffed with a mixture of ricotta and spinach and topped with a light tomato sauce. It’s a delicious option, especially for Lent or the warm weather months, or for a light starter to a substantial main course.

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Fazzoletti di crespelle (Stuffed Crêpe “Handkerchiefs”)

It may come as a surprise, but Italians make crêpes. They’re called crespelle in Italian (even if many Italians also call them by their French name, as we do in English). The most common use for crêpes in Italian cookery is not as dessert, but as stuffed pasta.

Crespelle can take the place of egg pasta to make cannelloni, or you can use them to make fazzoletti della nonna, “grandma’s handkerchiefs”, or fazzoletti di crespelle, or “crepe handkerchiefs”: stuff them with a filling of your choice—I particularly like ricotta and either spinach or Swiss chard—then fold them into triangles that are said to look like handkerchiefs–hence the name–cover them with béchamel and grated cheese and bake them in the oven until golden brown on top.

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Ravioli al sugo di pomodoro (Homemade Ravioli with Tomato Sauce)

One of the most lovely types of fresh pasta are the ever-popular ravioli, which, as you probably know, are a kind of stuffed pasta, typically square with fluted edges.

The fillings vary, but one of the most classic is a mixture of equal parts blanched Swiss chard or spinach and ricotta, seasoned with Parmesan cheese, salt, pepper and a pinch of nutmeg, to which an egg or two can be added as a binder, for a firmer texture.

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Tomato Sauce 101

I’m all for convenience when it actually makes life simpler. But it’s always been a mystery to me why people buy those jars of wretched “spaghetti sauce” that line our supermarket shelves, when you can make real tomato sauce with only a tiny bit more time and effort.

I suspect that many people are simply confused. When you mention tomato sauce, they automatically think of that Sunday sauce—ragù—that takes elaborate preparation and hours of simmering on the stove. But an everyday tomato sauce—sugo di pomodoro—can be ready in as little as 15 minutes. That’s less time than it will probably take to bring water to the boil and cook your pasta. And, for the simplest sauces, all you need are canned or fresh tomatoes, olive oil and a clove of garlic.

There are countless variations of sugo di pomodoro in Italian cuisine, but there is a standard technique. You start by making a simple flavor base or soffritto by sautéing aromatic vegetables in olive oil, add tomato, salt and (if you like) a pinch of pepper, and simmer for 20-30 minutes. That’s it. Mostly the variations lie in the ingredients you choose for your soffritto and how long you let the sauce simmer.

So, without further ado, here are three “mother” sauces, together with two interesting recipes suggested by well-known Italian gastronomes, that you can use any time you feel like a nice bowl of pasta: