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Cooking
in Roman style
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By
David Kohn Sun
Staff Originally
published April 14, 2004 | If
you're taking part in the current cultural psychosis known as the low-carb revolution,
this is not the cookbook for you. That's too bad. You're missing out on a host
of delicious recipes for culinary pariahs like pasta, pizza and potatoes.
In
her latest book, Rome, at Home (Broadway Books, 2004, $29.95), food writer Suzanne
Dunaway isn't particularly worried about carbohydrates - or any sort of calories,
really. In addition to focaccia and linguine, many of the more than 150 recipes
in the book require abundant amounts of olive oil, butter and parmesan cheese.
Rome,
at Home presents itself as a guide to the authentic Roman way of cooking: simple
yet sophisticated, full of robust flavors like garlic, rosemary and fresh tomato.
Many of these recipes accomplish the neat trick of being easy to make while producing
unusually tasty results. As Dunaway puts it: "La cucina romana requires no sleight
of hand." Linguine with clam sauce, for example, has only seven ingredients (including
pasta and lemons), and four steps, but ended up being, as my wife put it, a "restaurant-quality"
dish.
As with so many others in this book, the recipe reveals the almost
magical powers of olive oil, white wine and garlic. When mixed with the salty
water from the opened clams, this trio created a delicate yet hearty sauce that
was almost impossible to stop eating.
Dunaway also includes asides about
Rome. Italians don't use the word espresso, she says, warning that those who use
the term are immediately tabbed as unsophisticated turistas. (What Italians call
coffee - caffe - actually is espresso, eliminating the need for another term.)
She
also offers culinary tricks gleaned from chefs and food merchants. In her recipe
for squid in tomato sauce, she passes on this hint: Soaking the creature in milk
before cooking increases tenderness.
One caveat: Like many cookbook authors,
Dunaway appears to have tested her recipes on a restaurant-quality stove. Compared
with your run-of-the-mill range, these appliances tend to produce a steadier,
more powerful heat, which cooks food more quickly. The recipes in Rome, at Home
consistently required more time than Dunaway's estimates. One recipe, potatoes
with rosemary, took a full hour longer.
The squid in tomato sauce recipe
is typical of many in the book: It's uncomplicated; includes garlic, olive oil
and white wine; and yields a tasty dish. Even without the milk bath, the squid
was supple.
To make use of the extra sauce, I added a bowl of linguine
to the mix. Dr. Atkins would surely have disapproved, but you know the old saying:
When in Rome ...
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