Micol Negrin Takes on Rustic Cuisine

by Cristina Colasanto

As an accomplished chef, instructor and former editor in chief of The Magazine of La Cucina Italiana, Micol Negrin’s criticallyacclaimed cookbook, “Rustico: Regional Italian Cooking” is just the next course in her professional culinary career. One of New York Times food critic Florence Fabricant’s picks, and voted to the Boston Globe’s list of the ten favorite cookbooks of 2002, “Rustico” is fast becoming a kitchen staple. With its straightforward and approachable recipes from each of Italy’s twenty, unique regions, “Rustico” is delicious. Then add in each region’s history, trivia and Negrin’s descriptive writing style and vivid photography, and it becomes beautiful. Her recommendations for each area’s best bakeries, cheese shops and restaurants, as well as a list of mail order sources for particular ingredients and a glossary of terms, make it an indispensable guide.
In presenting ten traditional recipes from each region, Negrin adds sidebars brimming with amusing anecdotes and trivia to capture the subtle nuances and unique identity embodied in its regional cuisine, from antipasti to dolci. “Rustico’s” introduction,devotes particular attention to defining the wines of each region as well. Its careful distinction between the label classification categories DOC, DOCG, VdT and IGT also serves to demystify the selection of Italian wine. Negrin, in her chapter devoted to Piemonte, writes that some historians believe the Gauls invaded the land to assume control of its vineyards, maybe in hopes of cornering the market on the critical “nebbiolo” grape varietal found in its most famous red wines, such as the Barolo and Barbaresco. Also a fount of culinary firsts, it was in this region’s capital city of Torino that the method for isolating cocoa butter was discovered. Torino is also home to the first chocolate bar. As a result, it considers itself the “Italian Capital of Chocolate”. Given the breadth of information within its pages, readers may find themselves referring to Rustico to satisfy their gastronomic curiosity or plan a trip, well after the recipes have sated their appetites.
As a Milanese native who spent half of her childhood in Montreal, Micol was both influenced by her mother’s cooking, and frequent family trips to Italy. After college, she decided to enter culinary school and since then, she has enjoyed success as a chef, magazine editor and writer, instructor at the Institute of Culinary Education (formerly Peter Kump’s New York School of Cooking) among others, and most recently cookbook author. When she is not engaged in her 70 city book tour, Micol spends much of her time teaching classes at Grace’s Marketplace on the Upper East Side. Recently, I sat down with Micol before one of her classes to discuss “Rustico”.
What led you to choose a culinary career?
“I was always obsessed with food. It was not so much about what I could eat, but what I could cook. When I was at McGill studying psychology, I would be sitting in class thinking about the menu I would create that week. I realized cooking was the one thing that made me completely happy, so I followed my heart and enrolled in the culinary academy, Institut de Tourisme et d’Hotellerie du Quebec. After graduation, I started a catering business straightaway that lasted for 5 years. Then, once my husband and I moved to New York, I realized I had been focusing all of my creative energies on cooking, and that I really wanted to write about food, so I decided to combine the two. I pitched some articles to Fine Cooking Magazine and they accepted them. In 1996, I became the editor of La Cucina Italiana where I spent my time writing almost 90% of it. After almost six years, I left the magazine to devote my time to Rustico and teaching.”
Since then, “Rustico” seems to be keeping you busy. How did you decide to write it?
“It was a natural evolution in a sense. My parents and grandmother were living in Italy, and my husband and I love to travel so we would visit often. While going to all of these different cities in Italy we realized that the diversity of the cooking was mind blowing. As we explored, I saw in detail that it was not just one style of cooking. I would ask people about what they grew up eating or about how they transformed the vegetables they were selling at their market into their staple dishes and so on. After talking to them, I thought there is no book out there that talks about each of Italy’s 20 regions. Many books deal with parts of the country, and a few break it down regionally, but when they do that, they lump together regions that are difficult to deal with, such as Val D’Aosta with Piemonte. As you visit each region you realize that each has distinct differences that should be treated separately. The name, Rustico, came to me naturally when I was on a plane to Montreal to visit my parents. I knew it was the book I wanted to write.”
Do you have a favorite recipe?
“My favorite recipe that I would make for myself, my comfort food, is Pizzacce Viterbesi from the Lazio region. It’s a humble dish of flour and water pancakes sometimes not stuffed with anything at all. I love it.”
Do you have any advice for novice cooks or those beginning to experiment with Italian cooking?
“-Trust yourself because how wrong can you go .
-Try to use authentic ingredients. Even though the recipes are wonderful and easy to follow, if you make substitutions that remove the authenticity and genuine flavor of the dish, then you won’t be happy with the result.
-Spend your time selecting the best possible raw ingredients because that’s what Italian cooking is all about: amazing ingredients that are treated with respect and treated simply. If you go in and approach it with a little bit of fun and sense of discovery, you’ll be happy.
-Finally, try to go to Italy, if you can, just for the fun of tasting the food locally. When you come back you will know just which flavors you wish to recreate.”