The benefit of soaking and cooking (or, better still, pressure cooking) your own beans are many: less packaging; money saved (a 500g bag of dried beans costing 2.50 will yield 1.5kg cooked beans, while some 400g tins can cost more or less the same); the suspiciously coloured but flavourful and starchy bean cooking water; and some personal satisfaction that you actually remembered to soak the beans in the first place.
Born in the north of Italy in 1924, Hazan came to the United States with her Italian-born American husband in 1955, and her disappointment with American food encouraged her to learn to cook, especially dishes that she missed from home. Hazan went on to become a legendary teacher and author, writing some of the most beloved Italian cookbooks ever, which introduced Americans to real Italian cooking in the 70s.
These aren't just any breadcrumbs. 4C Foods has been around for nearly a century (since 1935!), and contrary to other brands or types, these particular breadcrumbs are seasoned with Pecorino Romano cheese, garlic powder, onion powder, and other spices (it doesn't list exactly what they are, but I see flecks of dried parsley). I'm no stranger to 4C Foods Seasoned Bread Crumbs. My dad has actually long used them to bread his chicken cutlets, but I never, ever thought about using them in meatballs.
There are dishes that take a lot of time, effort, and expertise to pull off (like the peak crispiness of Peking duck, perfectly airy brioche donuts, or a really excellent croissant, where the luscious layers are so beautiful, you just want to sink into them and melt away with the butter). These are places where shortcuts either don't work at all or, if they technically do, they don't yield anywhere near the same result.
Anyone can tell you how to cook Italian food - a preliminary search on YouTube will throw up millions of meticulously detailed tutorials competing for your attention. However, when you want to understand why Italians cook the way that they do, you'll want to turn to the culinary maestros and virtuosos at the forefront of this cuisine, from Marcella Hazan and Anna del Conte to Nancy Silverton. But you wouldn't want to consider the Italian cookbooks written by them as simple recipe books, either.
It's a well-known method that I learned while working with Italian chefs to celebrate in-season cavolo nero and new season extra-virgin olive oil, keeping the sauce as simple as possible to let each of them sing. You can serve this sauce however you like: I often stir it through pasta for a quick dinner, but when I have more time, I stir it through a white risotto.
