But I must confess that I was a bit intimidated. I had only prepared one of my assigned recipes previously and several of them called for unfamiliar ingredients or implements. I would never consider myself more than an enthusiastic cook and I knew that at least some of my cohorts are very accomplished and expert in the kitchen. Plus, I wasn't really a great fan of Italian cooking. Most of my travels in Europe have been based in France, that most civilized country - and my culinary interests, such as they were, centred around French cooking.

Early on, I decided to conclude my account of preparing each recipe by addressing three issues:

1. What I liked about the recipe.
2. What I didn't like about the recipe.
3. Would I make it again?

I thought such an approach would keep me honest about the recipe and might be of some assistance to followers of the blog. It was the best decision I could have made.

How is my life different from having participated in this project?

• I don't skip over a recipe because it might seem a bit complicated or call for a novel ingredient.
• I am a familiar face in some specialty food stores in the Ottawa area.
• I do more shopping at butcher shops.
• I assemble all the ingredients for a recipe in front of me before starting.
• I plan my garden with specific recipes in mind.
• I prepare many more meals than before.
• I seldom use the "Defrost" setting on the microwave.
• I am much more confident in the kitchen.

Those are a few of the more obvious changes, but I know it goes deeper than that.

Recipe prepared most often:

Stuffed Spaghetti Frittata with Tomato, Mozzarella and Ham. This is a great recipe, a favourite with friends and family - quick and easy and delicious. Everybody asks for the recipe.

Biggest surprise:

Sunchoke and Spinach Salad. I had difficulty obtaining the sunchokes - Jerry came to my rescue. I have planted sunchokes on my property. This simple recipe was my favourite salad.

Forever favourites:

Shrimp with Tomatoes and Chili Pepper. Easy to prepare with my favourite shellfish as the main ingredient.

Fricasseed Chicken with Rosemary and Lemon Juice. Now I much prefer starting with a whole chicken, fresh from a butcher shop, rather than parts wrapped in plastic and laying on a styrofoam tray.

Veal Scaloppine in Parchment with Fontina Cheese. Sure to impress, this is the first recipe I prepared that I thought approached a professional standard.

Tuscan Meat Roll with White Wine and Porcini Muchrooms. A big leap up from the humble meat loaf - economical, easy to prepare and a great result.

Crisp Fried Zucchini Blossoms. A seasonal treat not to be missed. The main reason to plant zucchinis in my garden.

Eggplant Patties with Parsley, Garlic and Parmesan. Another summer treat using fresh produce from my garden.

Diplomatico - A Chocolate Dessert with Rum and Coffee. A great dessert, as good or better than the best you can recall. Guaranteed.

Frozen Tangerine Shells Filled with Tangerine Sorbet. This takes a while and requires an ice cream maker, but the final result is well worth the time and effort.

When I joined this group I owned Marcella's book, but I had never really heard of her. I had no idea of the place that Marcella Hazan occupies in the pantheon of cooking icons. A couple of weeks ago I read her memoir, Amarcord and got a better understanding of the person behind the inspiration for this project and her generally positive comments on this blog.

Thank you, Marcella, for your faithful attention to our efforts.

And thank you to all those who have contributed comments.

And thank you to Beth, Irene, Cindy, Sandi, Jan, Jerry, Palma, Kim - my fellow travelers on this journey.

And thank you, especially, to Deborah who invited me along for the ride.

Just over a year ago, I never would have read this book. A memoir/autobiography by a person, Marcella Hazan, totally unfamiliar to me - a person who wrote some Italian cookbooks. I don't think so.

But, I was invited to take part in an interesting online blog - Pomodori e Vino.
- in which a group of geographically disparate people cook their way through Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking by the self-same Marcella Hazan.

So having prepared over fifty recipes from her book and having been on the receiving end of many comments from Marcella over the past year plus, I decided to read what she had to say about her life.

I think Marcella has been very candid in this memoir - about her sensitivity to a physical issue; her relationship with her husband, publishers, and many other people in her life; her business success and failures; the important decisions she made at several times in her life.

The book is full of surprises. I had no idea that she spent a large part of her life in the United States (she now resides in Florida), how widely known she was in some circles or that operating cooking classes could be a career. The biggest surprise for me was her main reason for moving back to the United States after being based in Italy for several years. She was attracted by the U.S. health care system, which suggests that she had many more business successes than failures.

I can recommend this book if you already are familiar with the name Marcella Hazan. It is a very well-written and informative account of her life.

I've made non-breadmaker bread many times, albeit a few years ago. So I wasn't expecting any glitches in making my ultimate recipe for this project - figured I could whip it up the day before, take a few pics, post my report the evening before & schedule it to appear early the next morning. Easy peasy.

Pretty simple ingredients - unbleached flour, olive oil, olives, salt, yeast. Well, after all it is bread. What could be simpler?

OK, gotta make a starter - called a biga - some yeast, water, flour, olive oil. Oh, oh, it's supposed to rise 14 to 18 hours - so that's why this recipe didn't appear earlier today. Also there's a big mystery concerning the biga, which I will explain later.
The risen biga below:

The bread dough below, including water, yeast, half the biga, some of the flour, the salt, the rest of the flour, some water & the olives. I used a wooden spatula to mix the ingredients together.

One of Marcella's directions calls for occasionally lifting the dough out of the bowl with the spatula & slapping it back in. I liked that part.

After rising for a few hours, the dough is flattened and lightly kneaded. Then it is shaped into a ball and allowed to rise again under a bowl. before baking in the oven at differing degrees for about an hour.

The final result. Best olive bread I've ever made - also the first.

The biga mystery? Well, the directions call for using half of the starter at an early stage, but no mention of the other half. I read & re-read Marcella's directions several times to see if I missed something. So the final result is a very good loaf of olive bread & half of the biga.

What I liked about this recipe:

It's been a long time since I've made bread - enjoyed the experience. Also, I liked using my wooden spatula, keeping the hand kneading to a minimum.

What didn't I like about this recipe:

Two days to make a loaf of bread?

Will I make it again?

Perhaps. The final result is very good.

This focus of this book is a very small group of investors/traders/financial managers who saw through the insane financial house of cards that brought the American economy to the brink of destruction in 2008. Their story is fascinating and in the larger picture, it is criminal that the perpetrators of this fraud are not in prison.

Lewis maintains that he really isn't that knowledgeable about how the financial markets worked, or failed to work, but his story is engrossing. Highly recommended.

Below are the ingredients for the pizza dough ....

Followed by the topping ingredients for two 12-inch pizzas - mozzarella, olive oil, anchovies, basil, parmigiano-reggiano cheese and salt.

My first kick at this can - not the greatest esthetics, and I think my crust is a bit burnt, but the taste was OK - a nice light pizza.

What I liked about this recipe:

Pretty simple.

What didn't I like about this recipe:

No problems.

Will I make it again?

Yup.

.

Tortellini??

Yes, tortellini. When I prepared tortellini last year, it was my first experience with making pasta from scratch and also my first experience with a pasta machine. The final result was so disastrous that I had to do it again so I wouldn't completely embarrass myself with my fellow conspirators.

This recipe calls for preparing a sorbet from scratch using an ice cream maker. I didn't have an ice cream maker and spent several months asking every casual acquaintance if I could borrow one. No luck; nobody had one. I even thought of buying one, but whereas a pasta maker was quite reasonably priced, an ice cream maker was double the cost. And, while I reasoned that a pasta maker would likely be used occasionally, I didn't figure that I would wear out an ice cream maker. I even considered trying to swap recipes with another day of the week (I am fondly known as "Wednesday" among the PeV crowd), but I was reluctant to do that.

I finally located a source for the ice cream machine - a childhood friend who I am sure is amused that I am taking part in this project.

Below are all the ingredients, sans one. Present are the sugar, tangerines, lemon, orange, egg and rum, along with the elusive ice cream maker. Absent are the sprigs of mint used as a garnish atop the final product.

The first step involves slicing off the tops of the tangerines and extracting the fruit, using your fingers according to Marcella's directions, while being careful not to tear the fragile tangerine rind. I was somewhat skeptical that my fingers could do the job without wreaking havoc with the rind. Everything worked out fine. I was a bit tentative at first, but my extraction technique improved quickly. The shells and tops are then frozen for at least 2 hours.

The next stage involves making the sorbet. A syrup is prepared of sugar, water, lemon and orange peel, and tangerine, orange and lemon juice. After the syrup has completely cooled, a lightly beaten egg white is mixed in and everything is put into the ice cream maker. Follow the directions.

The final result below, after some rum has been added to the sorbet, the mixture frozen and spooned into the frozen tangerine shells. The mint leaves are a bit limp. Fresh mint was not available from my garden in April when I first prepared this recipe - so I had to buy some at the store, NOT my preferred source. Also, Marcella indicates that the filling should extend to just over the rim, but I was a bit light in the volume of the sorbet. The list of ingredients calls for 6 large or 8 small tangerines; my 8 tangerines were pretty big. Next time I'll increase the amount of the ingredients to account for this. It's just as easy to fill 8 large tangerines as 8 small ones.

What I liked about this recipe:

Using an ice cream maker was a novel experience and the result was excellent in both appearance and taste. Well worth the effort.

What didn't I like about this recipe:

Well, it took a long time - several hours from start to finish.

Will I make it again?

Yes. This is an impressive dessert to serve to friends and family. However, in the future I would prepare this at least a day ahead since it is quite time-consuming.

This is one of the best and most rewarding recipes I have prepared for this project, right up there with the Diplomatico chocolate dessert from a few weeks ago. Very highly recommended.

• When I signed on for this project over a year ago, I received a colour-coded Excel list of the recipes in Marcella's tome. I am Wednesday - purple recipes.

• Some big challenges; many current family favourites; several veggie recipes which made use of my garden and which will shape my planting as long as I garden; dozens of unexpected delights.

• But, when I looked over "my" list, this was one of the easy ones - fruit, sugar, milk, ice, Maraschino liqueur - sounds like what I imagine a "smoothie" to be - I'm a wine & beer guy, never had one.

• Maraschino liqueur? Cherries, right? I read Marcella's note back on p.580 - the recipe appears on p.609, but when I went to my local LCBO - Liquour Control Board of Ontario, the world's largest purchaser of alcoholic beverages and a significant asset to the economic well-being of my province - the closest I could find was Schloss Kirsch, an Austrian cherry liqueur.

• Ah well, close enough, I thought - until I read Beth's post on May 8.

• Oh, you mean all cherry liqueurs are not created equal? According to Marcella, "Maraschino is a fine Italian liqueur made from the pulp and crushed pits of the marasca cherry."

• Ok, I'm always trying to be faithful to Marcella's directions - pause for Marcella's outraged interjection - so I searched on the LCBO's web site for a source of the correct liqueur

• Hey, guess what? I found one - LUXARDO MARASCHINO ORIGANLE LIQUEUR - figured I could post a mea culpa on the site until I got the correct ingredient.

• But, whereas I have traveled more than an hour to locate an ingredient in one of my recipes and have been rescued by co-conspirators more than once, in this case I was stumped. While the liqueur is on the provincial list, it is NOT available at any outlet anywhere in Ontario - an area more than three times the sq. km. of Italy.
  

So this is my photo of the ingredients sans the crushed ice - I chose raspberries as the fruit:

A blender is the only "cooking" implement used.

The final result, pour deux:

What I liked about this recipe:

Hey, throw everything into a blender, turn it on for a few seconds and dessert is ready.

What I didn't like about this recipe:

Well, the impossibility of obtaining a main ingredient became a huge problem.

Would I make it again?

Probably not, since it is unlikely that I will ever be able to obtain the recommended liqueur, unless I bring it back from one of our trips.

But, OK Marcella, I'll give it a go.

Simple ingredients, as has been common with almost all of these recipes - flour, salt, eggs, honey, lemon peel, butter, vegetable oil - only had to pick up some ricotta cheese at the store.

All of the ingredients, except for the oil and honey, are mixed into a batter and set aside for between 2 and 3.5 hours.....

.... then fried in very hot oil in dollops of 1 tablespoon. The fritters puff up after a short time cooking on both sides and are then removed to a cooling rack to drain .....

..... then put on a plate, dribbled with honey and served when still very warm.

What I liked about this recipe:

This was a new experience for me - never made fritters before - although it's a lot like making doughnuts, only simpler.

What I didn't like about this recipe:

No problems, except I wasn't thrilled with cooking with such hot oil to make a dessert at the end of a meal.

Would I make it again?

Well, I've thought about that quite a bit. It's likely not a dessert I will prepare on a hot evening in July, but I can envisage making it to impress some dinner guests mid-winter. And before I do that, I will experiment with preparing the fritters earlier and reheating just before serving. So, yes, I'll probably make it again. The novelty value, at least chex Doug, make it a winner.

This is one book I never thought I would read - a book by a woman who cooked her way through Vol. 1 of Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking in a year, blogged about it & got a contract to write a book.

I remember when it first came out a few years ago. Gimmicky, I thought - like the guy who wrote a book about living Biblically for a year. Not much interest for me. But I did read & enjoy My Life in France, Julia Child's posthumous memoir of her years in France after WWII.

Saw the movie of with Amy Adams as Julie Powell and Meryl Streep as Julia Child. But, whereas the film takes the title of Julie Powell's book, it is Meryl Streep's portrayal and details from Julia Child's book that dominate.

With so many books out there I thought I could safely pass on this one. BUT, guess what? About a year ago I joined a cooking project inspired by Julie & Julia. Only there are nine of us cooking & blogging our way through Marcella Hazan's Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking, one recipe per day from start to finish. It's taken over a year and we're near the end. My last recipe, "Apulia's Olive Bread" appears on June 1. It's been a great experience - a lot of excellent recipes (only a few duds) & learning lots of new stuff - never would have attempted many of the recipes I have been assigned.

So, I thought I would see how closely Julie Powell's experience mirrored mine.... Actually, not very much, as far as I can tell. I had to prepare one recipe a week over about 16 months. She set herself the challenge of preparing approximately 1.5 recipes a day over 365 days. Also, since she had a full-time job, many of her meals weren't ready until very late in the evening. And while her blog may have been mainly about the cooking experience, her book is more of "A Year in the Life of Julie Powell".

But some of here experiences rang true to my own:

- sourcing oddball ingredients
- problems created by skimming over directions
- spending a lot of time on recipes that really weren't worth it - see Bitch Rice
- making crepes (or crespelles, in my case)
- boning a duck
- organ meats
- the joy when everything turns out well.

I enjoyed this book a lot more than I anticipated. I read the first few chapters at a very leisurely pace, then when I got used to the setting, characters & her style, I sped through the rest. Recommended, even if you have seen the film.

Marcella includes some very specific directions, as usual. Most of the mixing is done off heat and I followed her option of using a double -boiler to reduce the possibility of the formation of lumps.

Egg yolks, sugar and flour mixed in the top half of the double boiler.

Hot milk is mixed slowly into the egg yolk mixture. A wooden spoon is used to stir the mixture. When the custard clings to the spoon "coating it with medium density", the desired consistency has been obtained.

The cream is cooled in ice water. The final result below - no lumps, tastes good. Success.

What I liked about this recipe:

Hey, I can make crema - never would have tried it before. I think the the lemon zest added a lot to the recipe - likely pretty bland without it.

What I didn't like about this recipe:

No problems for me.

Would I make it again?

Yes, almost certainly as a filling for some other recipe.

The ingredients below, with three large Bosc pears:

In her directions, Marcella recommends a 9-inch round pan. The closest I could get was a 10-inch springform pan. One advantage of using a springform pan is the ease of removing the tart from the pan.

The final result, just out of the oven, with the springform side removed.

Marcella comments that this tart "is very nice served while still a little warm." Agreed.

What I liked about this recipe:

Everything.

What I didn't like about this recipe:

No problems for me.

Would I make it again?

Well, actually I've already made it a few more times. Trust me, this is a very good dessert.

1. First, it stretches over 3 pages in the book. Hey, must be complicated, right?

2. Not exactly, because the recipe starts with a store-bought pound cake.

3. And some of the length is due to different options for the cake frosting.

4. But, I found it impossible to buy a plain pound cake. Sara Lee used to make one, but it has been delisted, according to Brian at the local supermarket.

5. And no luck trying to buy a pound cake at a couple of specialty stores in the area.

6. But, BW came through (again) and made a pound cake.

7. Everything was going fine - well, not exactly but I'll explain later - when, WHOA! the preparations stretches over two days. Guess I should have read the directions more carefully the first time through.

...The last surprise, I'll leave to the end.

The ingredients below include some expresso coffee, semi-sweet chocolate, a 16-ounce pound cake, some sugar, water, a few eggs, a bit of butter, a small amount of whipping cream and, oh yes, some rum. Marcella also suggests a garnish of fresh berries or walnuts and candied fruit, but I skipped the garnish this time.

A nine-inch rectangular pan, lined with damp cheesecloth provides the structure for the dessert. The pound cake is cut into slices; the individual slices are soaked in a rum & coffee mixture; then line the bottom of a nine-inch pan. A filling of chocolate, egg yolk and a bit of sugar is spread over the layer of pound cake; then a second layer is placed on top. The cheesecloth is folded over the top and the pan is refrigerated until the next day.

A chocolate frosting is made the next day. Marcella also provides an option for a whipped cream frosting, but how much chocolate is too much?

What remains of the initial servings. The white spots on the cake are where I missed with the rum & coffee soak. The soak was the trickiest part of the preparation - too wet and the pieces fall apart.

What I liked about this recipe:

This turned out great the first time I tried it a few months ago & I have improved the esthetics in subsequent efforts. I received many compliments on my initial preparation from an international audience - well a couple of my son-in-law's relatives from Scotland were at the dinner.

And, by the way, I did locate a source for a store-bought Sara Lee pound cake for the recipe & used it once - but the scratch cake is a lot better.

What I didn't I like about this recipe:

Well, I wasn't thrilled that it stretched over two days, but that was my problem. Also, the initial difficulty in locating a main ingredient (the pound cake) was an unexpected hurdle.

Would I make it again?

Yes, this is the best dessert I have ever made. This is a great recipe. I have made it a few times and it always impresses. It is equal to, or better, than any restaurant dessert in my experience. It is the most professional result I have achieved in this project.

This dessert is at the top of my favourite recipes I've prepared for this project - the final surprise.

But I blew it.

Ingredients are pretty simple - almonds, sugar, vegetable oil, a sheet of aluminum foil and a potato. A potato? Yes, a potato.

I followed Marcella's directions as to how to skin the almonds; made sure the melted sugar reached a "rich tawny gold"; spread the vegetable oil on the aluminum foil; used the potato as per Marcella's instructions. BUT I deviated from one of Marcella's directions which likely created my problem with this recipe. Marcella indicated that the almonds are to be chopped very fine using a knife, not a food processor, into pieces about half the size of a grain of rice. Well, I didn't use a food processor, but I didn't use a knife either - I use a hand-held food chopper, which likely resulted in too many very small pieces i.e. crumbs.

The end result (below) was not like praline, more like a very sweet granola. The ingredients didn't bind together.

What I liked about this recipe:

Well, I like almonds and the list of ingredients is very small.

What didn't I like about this recipe:

Since I didn't follow one of the directions, I suppose I had a problem with that - couldn't see myself chopping all those almonds into very small pieces.

Will I make it again?

No. I don't think the effort is worth the reward, or is even a good idea for that matter. I am pretty sure I could do a better job on a second attempt, but I decided I didn't want to make it again. About the last thing I need to be doing is making and eating more candy. I'm consciously reducing my sugar consumption - will reserve my splurges for other recipes in this chapter.

I was able to select plenty of mature chard with broad stalks, although likely not as broad as suggested by Marcella. The Swiss chard keeps growing and the stalks keep getting bigger throughout the summer.

I cut the stalks into 1/2" x 4" sections, boiled them for a few minutes on their own before adding the leaves & some salt. After a few minutes, I drained the chard, let it cool a bit before tossing with olive oil, salt and some lemon juice.

What I liked about this recipe:

Pretty simple and pretty good. Not much more to add.

What didn't I like about this recipe:

A bit bland - but the olive oil, salt & lemon juice added at the end gave it some zing.

Will I make it again?

Yes. It's another summer vegetable option, with the added benefit of helping me pretend I'm in Italy. I'll keep planting Swiss chard in my garden.