Roast Chicken with Pancetta and Herbs {50 Women In Food: #6 Marcella Hazan}

On July 15, 2011

Marcella's Roast Chicken

Mary of One Perfect Bite and ten other women bloggers (including myself) are blogging our way through the 50 Women Game Changers In Food published by Gourmet in May ’11. Some of the women on the list you will know, others you may not, but either way, this will be a great 50 week journey to learn more about these women that inspire the way we think about food today.

Please visit Mary at One Perfect Bite, Val at More Than Burnt Toast, Joanne at Eats Well With Others, Taryn at Have Kitchen Will Feed, Susan at The Spice Garden, Claudia at A Seasonal Cook In Turkey, Heather at Girlichef, Jeanette at Jeanette’s Healthy Living, April at Abby Sweets, Katie at Making Michael Poland Proud, Kathleen at Bake Away With Me and Viola at The Life is Good Kitchen for their tributes to these 50 women.

“There can be no unnecessary ingredient or unnecessary step. A dish may indeed be complicated, but in terms of taste, every component, every procedure must count.” 
                                                                                                                                                                                - Marcella Hazan

Marcella Hazan writes more than just cookbooks. She writes lessons in cooking. She breaks it down for us and explains it like no one else has. She tells us stories. Never have I been so enthralled in a cookbook and wanted to sit and read more. Who knew cookbooks could be so compelling. This is one reason she lands so high on the list at number 6.

I checked out two books of hers from the library. “Marcella’s Italian Kitchen” and “Marcella Says”. Two books which I now want to buy. Not only could I not decide which of her wonderful recipes to make, but I could not put these books down. Every time I opened them, I was transported to a little town in Italy in which I felt like Marcella was my culinary teacher showing me everything I needed to do. I found myself reading paragraphs to my husband (whether he wanted to listen or not) because I thought it was amazing. Maybe it is my love of cooking that kept me wanting to learn more, but I feel like anyone that picks up a Marcella Hazan cookbook will learn something that they never knew about Italian cooking.

open book

“Cooking in Italy is far less red than it is thought to be; most of it, in fact, is not red at all”

Marcella is sure to point this fact out to us. Fittingly so, because when I think of Italian food, I think red sauce and mozzarella cheese. Not any more. Thanks to Marcella, I realize that it is so much more, so I set out to pick a dish that did not have a red sauce. I really made two dishes and they paired together perfectly. The roasted chicken I am featuring today, the risotto I will save for another time.

Pollo Arrosto con la Pancetta e gli Odori

{Roast Chicken with Pancetta and Herbs}

Roast Chicken

My husband said “Oh My God” three times before he actually told me what he thought of the dish. Point well taken. This dish was beautifully done. Not often is there not a lot of speaking during dinner – we barely spoke tonight. We were too busy enjoying this wonderful dish.

“Because it is straightforward, Italian cooking appears simple and invites one to take many liberties.
It can be and one should. 
But if one does not pay close attention to its idiomatic flavors,
the rendition can easily slip into parody”

Marcella emphasizes the value of using quality ingredients. Most chefs do, but the way she tells it makes you not want to buy canned tomatoes (unless they are the imported San Marzano variety) or  pre-grated parmesan cheese. She says of olive oil: only use extra virgin. There are many more of these “elementary rules” presented in her cookbooks and if you are interested in reading more, I suggest you do. Now I present to you the dish I am featuring.

What you’ll need:

RAOST CHICKEN INGREDIENTS

With the comforting aroma of rosemary, sage and lemon that wafted through the kitchen during the two-plus hours that I was cooking, I knew that I was doing something special. Marcella roasts her chickens breast side down. I suspect it is to get a juicy breast. This I will tell you, was one perfectly prepared bird. Paired with her risotto with savoy cabbage and parmesan, I suspect it was a meal she would have been proud to serve herself.

Roast Chicken

 

Print
Roast Chicken with Pancetta and Herbs

Serving Size: 4 - 6

“There’s not a way of preparing chicken I don’t like, even simply boiling it, but there are times I have a yen for a particular consistency, a special fragrance. This recipe I use when I want a savory roast chicken that is not just tender but moist with marked aromatic character. The key flavor ingredients, which go into the cavity, are rosemary and sage, chopped, lemon peel and pancetta.”

Ingredients

  • A roasting chicken, about 2 1/2 pounds
  • 2 teaspoons fresh rosemary, or 1 teaspoon dried; together with 3 or 4 fresh sage leaves, or 1 teaspoon dried
  • 2 or 3 strips of lemon peel (outer skin with none of the white pith beneath), chopped fine
  • salt
  • black pepper in a grinder
  • 2 ounces pancetta, cut into narrow strips
  • 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
  • 1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

Directions

  1. Turn on the oven to 350.
  2. Wash the chicken in cold water, inside and out. Remove all the bits of fat hanging loose. Dry it well everywhere with kitchen towels.
  3. Mix 3 strips of minced lemon peel with 2 T of fresh rosemary, chopped, and 3 sage leaves, also chopped. Add some good coarse salt and freshly ground pepper. Rub this herb mixture in the cavity of the chicken.
  4. Stuff the cavity with the pancetta, sliced in narrow strips.
  5. Line a baking pan with parchment paper large enough to fold over the chicken and close it completely.
  6. Place the chicken breast side up in the pan. Drizzle 3 T of extra virgin olive oil over the chicken, followed by ¼ cup lemon juice.
  7. Fold the paper over and around the chicken to make it as airtight as you can.
  8. Bake for 35 minutes.
  9. Remove the chicken and turn the oven up to 425*
  10. Unwrap the chicken, careful not to puncture its skin, and pour the juices back into the pan. Set the paper aside.
  11. Place the chicken breast side down in the pan.
  12. Roast for 20 minutes.
  13. Remove the chicken from the oven and turn it on its side.
  14. Roast for another ten minutes.
  15. Remove the chicken from the oven and turn it on its other side.
  16. Roast for ten minutes.
  17. Remove the chicken and roast the chicken breast side down for the last ten minutes.
  18. Remove the chicken from the oven and let it rest for ten minutes. Cut it into several pieces. Arrange it on a warmed serving plate and pour the cooking juices from the pan over the chicken. Arrange the pancetta in strips across the chicken.
http://mangoesandchutney.com/50-women-in-food/roast-chicken-with-pancetta-and-herbs-50-women-in-food/

author

In The Spotlight: Marcella Hazan

Born Marcella Polini (1924) in the village of Cesenatico in Emilia-Romagna, Marcella is credited with introducing  the United States and Britain  to Italian cooking. She is one of the foremost authorities on Italian cuisine. She earned a doctorate in natural sciences and biology from the University of Ferrara. In 1955, she married Victor Hazan and they moved to New York City shortly thereafter. Surprisingly she never cooked before her husband, and used Italian cookbooks to learn the art, but quickly realized that her memory suited her better to recreate her Italian meals. In 1969 she opened up her own cooking school, The School of Classic Italian Cooking. Hazan’s cookbooks concentrate on strictly traditional Italian cookery without American or British influence. Her recipes tend to use only ingredients that would actually be used in Italian kitchens. You can find all of Marcella Hazan’s books on Amazon.

 

Category :
50 Women In Food, Chicken and Poultry, Dinner, Italian, Kid Friendly
Tags :
, , , ,

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>

CommentLuv badge

20 Responses to “Roast Chicken with Pancetta and Herbs {50 Women In Food: #6 Marcella Hazan}”

More in 50 Women In Food, Chicken and Poultry, Dinner, Italian, Kid Friendly (125 of 222 articles)


I got this idea late the other night while watching one of those cookie shows on Food Network. Thought ...