Gorgonzola Sauce
This sauce was great. It was very easy to put together and it had a wonderful flavor. I started with a creamy gorgonzola that we sell at our store. Marcella is very clear that the quality of the cheese is the most important thing. I have to agree. The cheese I chose has a mild and mellow richness. This is melted into some butter and milk over a low heat and then some whipping cream added and slightly reduced. The cooked pasta is then tossed with the sauce and then some grated parmesan cheese is tossed in to melt with the pasta. Wonderful.
The only caveat this week is that I should have made fresh fettuccine to have with this sauce, but Marcella said that the penne that I chose was a good substitute. I was planning to make it this week, but I had to take my son to his summer welcome at college. I spent two days out in the hot sun (108 heat index) walking back and forth and trying to learn everything that I am expected to do for the next four years. Yikes, I thought I was either going to melt or have my brain explode from too much information. Anyway, this delayed the pasta project and by the time I got home I was much to exhausted to begin. I promise though that fresh pasta is in my future.
This looks lovely Beth. I think the fewer ingredients a dish has, the greater the importance becomes of using top quality ingredients.
Penne is the designated hitter on the pasta team. It will always deliver, although it may not go as far at all times as homemade egg pasta. Do not short change yourself by using ordinary commercial penne. It may cost a few dollars more, but you should look for the high quality penne, bronze-dye extruded and slow dried that top Italian pasta makers produce, and that I am sure Beth carries in her shop.
WOW!!!! I am so glad that I found you through Facebook. I will be following this blog faithfully–it is a fantasy of mine come true and you cooks are doing it! Marcella’s cookbook was the first and only cookbook I ever saw in my mother’s kitchen. She has taught me so much and now so will you. GRAZIE!
Deborah responds: On behalf of all of us, Susan, thank you for the kind words.
Our goal is to bring Marcella’s dishes to life with accounts of our experiences and photographs. And especially we want to educate those who think they are learning to cook Italian from the current crop of food TV chefs.
We want everyone to know what we know — Marcella Hazan is, and always has been, the reigning queen of Italian home cooking.
guys, you are great! thank you Marcella, for spreading the word! you should all know that i had the privilege and the heart-attack experience to have Marcella at home a few years ago for dinner in my home in NY and i made exactly this dish, penne with gorgonzola sauce. i remember that i made the sauce a little too liquid, but i had Marcella next too me and she told me how to fix the problem. what an experience that was!
Allow me to add my compliments and appreciation for the wonderful job – of cooking and writing – oh, yeah, and photography – that you all do. I look forward to my daily reading, seeing and fantasizing about all your fine work.