Laurie Colwin is a great treasure. I read her essays when I want to feel cozy and reassured. I wonder what she would think of social media - would she have rejected it or embraced it?
We had a copy of Cucina Fresca when I was growing up. I still remember a favorite recipe that I made often in season, swordfish with tomato salsa fresca. Not sure what became of that book, but I'll need to replicate that dish in about a month, when tomatoes are in full flush here in Oregon.
Ruth Reichl: Reading Laurie Colwin in Gourmet was always my first course to the rest of the magazine, the influencer of my early cooking days in the big city. Your tribute brought her back for me. Thank you.
One of the founding mothers of my home kitchen, my copies of Home Cooking and More Home Cooking have been re-read and used countless times. I still LOL while re-reading an essay in the midst of a workday (these books mysteriously migrated to my office!) My standby pot roast is a Gourmet reprint of one of Laurie Colwin's recipes, and it goes something like "put a chuck roast into the dutch oven with 2 cans of plum tomatoes and a bunch of garlic cloves and roast at 300 for 3-4 hours" It is the greatest meal on a snowy February Sunday with a simple tossed green salad and a glass or 2 of a great american Cabernet.
So nice to see Cucina Fresca here - somehow my father stumbled (I'm sure he didn't go on purpose) onto a book signing by Evan and Viana, perhaps in a shopping center? Although intended to be a gift for me they signed it to him, and it remains a cherished memory of how thoughtful he could be.
I have the Cucina Fresca book and this post makes me want to cook from it this summer. I devoured your "The Paris Novel" and I am to be the Fact Finder for our book club in October. I will pull out my photos from eating at L'Esperance in 1994 and the Marc Menu cookbook in French that I brought home. I am frustrated that I don't have a Richard Olney cookbook in my collection. Michel Ruhlman mentioned him in a recent post but the price on the new edition...I am going to have to scour the used bookstores! Didn't want your book to end.
While I had become serious about my affinity to the kitchen and was working through (struggling to learn through) Wolfgang Puck’s Modern French Cooking a good friend gave me Laurie Colwin’s Home Cooking and More Home Cooking for my birthday. She commented to me - keep it real and good things will emerge. What gifts! I was so inspired to work with what I knew (and I went off to a yearlong cooking course with my feet on the ground and quite focused on learning to enhance what I already knew.)
I was also lucky enough to have plenty of dinners at Angeli before visiting The Groundlings where a couple of friends were busy enhancing what they knew there. Pizza Puttanesca for everyone! Thank you for augmenting and inspiring.
Laurie Colwin is a great treasure. I read her essays when I want to feel cozy and reassured. I wonder what she would think of social media - would she have rejected it or embraced it?
I have often wondered this myself. No doubt, she would be an inimitable contributor.
We had a copy of Cucina Fresca when I was growing up. I still remember a favorite recipe that I made often in season, swordfish with tomato salsa fresca. Not sure what became of that book, but I'll need to replicate that dish in about a month, when tomatoes are in full flush here in Oregon.
Ruth Reichl: Reading Laurie Colwin in Gourmet was always my first course to the rest of the magazine, the influencer of my early cooking days in the big city. Your tribute brought her back for me. Thank you.
I loved Laurie’s recipes. I made a black cake she wrote about in gourmet. Great
I remember Laurie Colwin vividly, I don’t know why. It must have been her cooking and her writing. That name brings a smile to my face.
Beautifully written … Loved hearing about Laurie Colwin. Her books are on my shelf.
One of the founding mothers of my home kitchen, my copies of Home Cooking and More Home Cooking have been re-read and used countless times. I still LOL while re-reading an essay in the midst of a workday (these books mysteriously migrated to my office!) My standby pot roast is a Gourmet reprint of one of Laurie Colwin's recipes, and it goes something like "put a chuck roast into the dutch oven with 2 cans of plum tomatoes and a bunch of garlic cloves and roast at 300 for 3-4 hours" It is the greatest meal on a snowy February Sunday with a simple tossed green salad and a glass or 2 of a great american Cabernet.
So nice to see Cucina Fresca here - somehow my father stumbled (I'm sure he didn't go on purpose) onto a book signing by Evan and Viana, perhaps in a shopping center? Although intended to be a gift for me they signed it to him, and it remains a cherished memory of how thoughtful he could be.
Love, love, love Laurie Colwin AND Evan Kleiman, whose pizza dough I still make. Thank you for the memories here.
It always makes me so happy when someone writes about Laurie Colwin. Thank you!
I regularly read my Laurie Colwin books and was delighted to read this essay. Thank you Ruth
I enjoyed your new novel, The Paris Novel. Thank you.
I am happily part of the 1-out-of-10 readers of Laurie Colwin that Anna Quindlen describes. Thanks for this.
I have the Cucina Fresca book and this post makes me want to cook from it this summer. I devoured your "The Paris Novel" and I am to be the Fact Finder for our book club in October. I will pull out my photos from eating at L'Esperance in 1994 and the Marc Menu cookbook in French that I brought home. I am frustrated that I don't have a Richard Olney cookbook in my collection. Michel Ruhlman mentioned him in a recent post but the price on the new edition...I am going to have to scour the used bookstores! Didn't want your book to end.
While I had become serious about my affinity to the kitchen and was working through (struggling to learn through) Wolfgang Puck’s Modern French Cooking a good friend gave me Laurie Colwin’s Home Cooking and More Home Cooking for my birthday. She commented to me - keep it real and good things will emerge. What gifts! I was so inspired to work with what I knew (and I went off to a yearlong cooking course with my feet on the ground and quite focused on learning to enhance what I already knew.)
I was also lucky enough to have plenty of dinners at Angeli before visiting The Groundlings where a couple of friends were busy enhancing what they knew there. Pizza Puttanesca for everyone! Thank you for augmenting and inspiring.
Angeli was SO, SO good. I still remember the most delicious pasta I had there. Thanks for stimulating that memory.