Sometimes the Best Ingredient Is the One That Isn't There

Faith Heller Willinger signs a copy of her new book at the Dupont Circle FreshFarm Market. (By Pouya Dianat -- The Washington Post)

You can write a recipe and still not know its secrets. Did any Italian chefs hold out on you?

Gennaro Esposito, a fabulous chef in southern Italy, told me how to make a sauce. It was just two or three little dots on a plate . . . yellow, sweet and sour, lemony and delicious. Served with raw seafood. Just the most delicious thing I'd ever eaten.

So I asked him for the recipe, and he explained the whole thing to me. It was very complicated and it involved six days of procedure. So I figured first I'd do it his way and then figure out something simpler.

Well, I made it his way and it didn't work -- at all. I went back and stood there and watched him do the whole thing. And, yes, there were many, many steps that were left out.

You're sure that was on purpose?

Yes! The thing I considered so interesting from his recipe is that Italians brine their citrus rind. That's what's done when they candy any citrus. I looked at all candied peel recipes everywhere and nobody mentioned that stage.

Did any of them balk at your divulging their recipes in this book?

No. There's only one person who refused to tell me what I wanted to know, and, as it turns out, he was someone who wouldn't have made the cut for the book, anyway; he was in a region I didn't include.

You've studied with Italian cooking masters great and unknown. When did you feel like you'd earned their respect?

About 15 years ago, I attended Marcella and Victor Hazan's cooking school in Venice. She has done amazing things for Italian food, and Victor's been a huge inspiration for me in writing recipes. I cooked for them at home, and when Marcella eyed a pesto I'd made with cavolo nero -- dark Tuscan kale -- she busted my chops until she stuck her finger in the bowl and tasted it. Then she said, "Maybe you should think about teaching." I passed the Marcella Hazan test.

So you've been saving string on this book for a long time. Did you test as you went along? The recipes read very clean.

I want my recipes to work. For me, a cookbook is a real message. If I don't have something I really want to say, what's the point? I think this book is different from anything else out there because I've been collecting friends and recipes for 35 years.