You likely know the name Marcella Hazan. Perhaps you’ve sampled recipes from the late Italian cook’s seven best-selling books, which are credited with teaching America how to prepare authentic, classic, and delicious Italian dishes. Her famously spare recipe for tomato sauce consists of one onion cut in half, canned tomatoes, a generous knob of butter and salt, all melded together in a pan (and served with shredded basil as an optional garnish).

The sauce transforms ordinary pasta into pure, unctuous perfection. Dubbed simply “Tomato Sauce III,” the recipe helped novice cooks the world over trust Hazan and her practicality, purpose and lack of pretension. Hazan was also a mentor and inspiration to a generation of celebrated chefs including TV personality, restaurateur and book author Lidia Bastianich and even Julia Child.