Marcella Hazan's left over Onion

A new life for the discarded onion from the classic tomato sauce.

Sep 23, 2024

I’ve been cooking from Marcella Hazan’s classic Italian cookbook for so long, I’m now on to my second copy as the first looked unseemly on my cookbook shelf held together with elastic bands. So I read with interest

Alexina

post on the classic tomato sauce over the weekend. It got me thinking about the discarded onion, which I’ve experimented with over the years, turning them into various dips and other creations.

For those who are not familiar with Marcella Hazan’s classic tomato sauce, check out Alexina’s post, then you will know about the onion dilemma of which I speak, and for the few people who have not got a copy of the best Italian cook book ever, well you know what to do, you will never need another Italian cookbook, well not until your first copy falls apart 30 something years later. Having said all of this, Marcella doesn’t tell us what to do with the onion once its has infused its sweet delicate flavours into the sauce. So yesterday I set about channeling Marcella in these leans times to use the discarded onion to give it a another life.

Here’s what I did. I set the onion into a strainer to drain the tomato sauce hidden in it’s folds, then diced it and fried it off with a bounty of good olive oil. I threw in 2 anchovy fillets, and some salt and sauteed on a firm heat until the onion was golden.

Once it had cooled I divided it in two, using one portion to anoint some delicate pieces of dry bread, then into a warm oven for 10 minutes. Out came these perfectly aromatic little onion infused croutons for a salad.

Frying off the diced onion, then anointing the bread

Then into the remaining onion infused oil I splashed some aged balsamic vinegar and gave it a good swirl. A few roast hazelnuts later I had this very delicious radicchio and onion salad for lunch.

Onion croutons and onion infused dressing

I am sincerely grateful for all I have learned about cooking good food from Marcella over the years, I bow to her knowledge, and respect for maintaining the integrity of both ingredient and tradition. No mater which cuisine I am cooking, she still whispers in my mind, so I hope she would like this new life I’ve given to her discarded onion.

Radicchio and onion infused salad, A salute to Marcella Hazan.

If you’d like more of Marcella Hazan, I’ve recently launched a new publication called “Cooking with Marcella”. I’m cooking my way through all of her cookbooks, not changing a thing, but noticing how she adapted her recipes over time. I’d love you to join me at Cooking with Marcella.