It’s the end of March, and the situation is not looking good for April. But let’s not start a new month or day for that matter with more doom and gloom. There’s enough of that going around. I must have been feeling a particular aversion to the news today, because I mostly stayed away from it.
Instead, I made a pot of bolognese. My go-to recipe for is from Marcella Hazan‘s Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking. Her spaghetti carbonara is also a staple dish for us. I also like her recipe for roast chicken with lemons, but the oven gets totally blown up and just the thought of cleaning it makes me look forward to Thanksgiving instead.
Back in Zürich, whenever I had a hankering for a rotissiere chicken, I’d pick one up from the Gueggeli Express in our neighborhood. I miss that. I miss Zürich. But we’re here now, and the bolognese turned out pretty good. It does take some time to chop everything and cook it all up, but I make it worth my while by multiplying the recipe by three so I have a whole pot for days.
When I get around to cooking, I usually enjoy the process. Right now I especially appreciate the relaxing, meditative aspects. There is something soothing about the rituals of preparing and cooking food; washing, peeling, and chopping them; measuring, weighing, stirring, and timing ingredients. There is comfort in the clarity and directness of cooking, not to mention the aroma and warmth that fill the air and appetite.
I think some comfort would do us all good right about now. So get cookin’! If you’d rather just stay the couch potato, then watch Jacques Pépin make an omelette. It’s mesmerizing and looks deceptively easy. I can’t talk about bolognese without dropping a good spaghetti western, like A Fistful of Dollars. Hell, everyone could use a few extra now. Plus, c’mon,it’s Clint Eastwood.