For Italians, food is not just about recipes but a way of life. It’s about making time for each other, forgetting work and worries, and enjoying tasty, satisfying meals. Therefore, many people memorize the flavor of family-cooked dishes than any other deluxe food. So, this post will introduce 10 Italian family cookbooks to you.
Feast of the Seven Fishes: A Brooklyn Italian’s Recipes Celebrating Food and Family
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“This book has so much heart. It makes me wish I was Italian! It is no secret that Italian food feels deeply rooted and soulful: this book shares moments and stories passing through the generations, with stunning photographs and visuals by the author.” – Jane
Feast of the Seven Fishes: A Brooklyn Italian’s Recipes Celebrating Food and Family is the book that takes you on a magical journey into a hidden world. Daniel Paterna is a second-generation Italian-American of a family who has preserved their culture from Naples’s shores to the streets of Bensonhurst.
Through recipes handed down from the family and stunning photos taken by the author himself, Paterna reveals the soulful and humorous history of Italian-Americans in Brooklyn. He’ll show you how to make long-forgotten recipes like stuffed calamari and take you to the stores, restaurants, and bakeries where artisans are still doing things the old way.
This book is ultimately a personal book that powerfully demonstrates the significance of the American experience: the ways food, family, and memory are preserved and changed by the immigrants, and the children of those immigrants who keep the flame alive.
About the Author: Daniel Paterna was born and brought up in his grandfather’s house built in Brooklyn. He graduated from The Pratt Institute with honors in graphic design and currently heads his Brooklyn-based design group. His photography has been on display at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the 440 Gallery in Brooklyn.
Paterna has also been the creator of some television’s most recognizable images and worked with leading content brands including ABC News, AMC, A&E, Disney, ESPN, History, and PBS. His design for NBC’s coverage of the 1996 Olympics won him an Emmy from The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.
Chef Michael Lomonaco, a native New Yorker, is one of the original Food Network and Travel Channel chef personalities with his shows Michael’s Place and Epicurious. He still appears sometimes on TV nowadays on ABC’s The Chew, and The Today Show, among others. Along with Porter House Bar and Grill, Michael is the chef and partner of Center Bar, the sophisticated cocktail lounge located on the 4th floor of the Time Warner Center.
John Turturro is an actor and director in several notable films such as Do the Right Thing, Barton Fink, Quiz Show, The Big Lebowski, The Truce, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, and Mia Madre. Turturro is also known for his television roles on Monk and, most recently, HBO’s The Night Of, for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe and a SAG award.
The Godfather: The Corleone Family Cookbook
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“Had to add this cookbook to my collection! The recipes are amazing and quite easy to follow. I wish I had more people to cook for!! Love Italian meals. ” – jatneen
The Godfather trilogy is recognized as one of the most excellent movie series of all the time. It tells about the classic story of the Italian immigrant family determined to preserve their long-life traditions from fading in the new world.
Containing 75 recipes with charming images and quotes from the films, this cookbook is absolutely a must-have for all fans of The Godfather, especially those with a taste for the more delicate foods in life.
About the Author: Liliana Battle is an accomplished travel and food writer. She is influenced a lot when living in Calabria, Italy, where her family comes. Her three cookbooks are Easy Home Cooking Italian Style, Food for Sharing Italian Style, and The Sweet Life: Home Baking and Sweet Treats Italian Style.
Carmine’s Family-Style Cookbook: More Than 100 Classic Italian Dishes to Make at Home
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“I use this book at least 3x a week. Must check out the recipe for Brown sauce, the meatball recipe is amazing, they are so soft and delicious. Really good recipes. A must-have cook book if you like Italian food.” – richard caiazza
Carmine’s flagship Times Square restaurant is famous for the best of classic Italian cuisine. Each dish is prepared simply to bring out the most dynamic flavor and make anyone who tastes it reach for seconds. Bringing it into text, Carmine’s Family-Style Cookbook reveals the simple hidden of Carmine’s longtime success in hearty, rich Italian food and just right for sharing that people can correctly whip up anytime at home.
With this cookbook instructions, Americans could easily create the Italian taste and enjoy at home from appetizers, pasta, meat, and main poultry courses to desserts. Try any recipes in Carmine’s Family-Style Cookbook and bring home that classic Italian flavor to your family.
About the Author: Michael Ronis and Mary Goodbody are co-authors of this cookbook. While Michael Ronis is a chef at Carmine’s Legendary Family Style Italian Restaurant and the executive chef of its parent company, the Alicart Restaurant Group, Mary Goodbody is a multiple James Beard Award winner.
Patsy’s Italian Family Cookbook
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“This book is a taste of heaven for me. My Grandma ( Concetta just like in the cookbook) passed when I was 12. I was blessed to eat the food but did not have recipes. The tomato sauce reminds me of the old days. So good. Thanks for sharing.” – Christinediane
Patsy’s Restaurant, founded in 1944, is famous for its classic Neapolitan Italian food that Frank Sinatra used to fly his favorite dishes from its kitchen to his shows. Since establishment, the restaurant’s three foremost chefs were Patsy, his son Joe, and his grandson Sal Scognamillo. All three passed down family recipes, invented great new twists on beloved classics, and focused on giving their loyal customer as celebrities precisely what they wanted to eat.
In this book, readers can easily find recipes you want to eat and can simply make at home, including Meatballs, Chicken Liver Cacciatore, Stuffed Veal Chop, Patsy’s Famous Onion Relish, Lemon Ricotta Cheesecake, and many others more.
With full color throughout, Patsy’s Italian Family Cookbook is a warm, beautiful book for not only those who know the restaurant and the nationally distributed sauce and pasta line, but also for anyone who loves classic Italian.
About the Author: Chef Sal Scognamillo learned every aspect of the business’s operation from his father (Joe) and grandfather (Patsy). He was appointed as Executive Chef in 1985 due to his father’s “retirement” from the kitchen. Under Sal’s supervision and administration, Patsy’s name has earned national brand-name recognition via their successful line of pasta sauces and gourmet Italian delicacies.
Big Flavors from Italian America: Family-Style Favorites from Coast to Coast
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“Great recipe collection, lots of pix, great design” – Bookwyrm
Big Flavors from Italian America is a festival of food and recipes. With 150 recipes, you could make any nonna proud by digging into the best of Italian American cooking.
Bubbling lasagna and drop meatballs are irresistible, but save room for Braciole and Chicken Scarpariello or Philadelphia Pork Sandwiches, Eggplant Pecorino, and Utica Greens. Learn the tricks behind pizzas differences between New York thin-crust, Chicago deep-dish, and unleavened Saint Louis pies.
About the Author: America’s Test Kitchen is top-rated television shows that famous for more than 4 million public television viewers per week. It also generates bestselling cookbooks, websites, magazines, and cooking schools.
The work of over 60 passionate chefs based in Boston, Massachusetts, has brought the reputation to brands of America’s Test Kitchen, Cook’s Illustrated, and Cook’s Country by putting ingredients, equipment, cookware, and recipes through objective, severe testing to make out the best.
Old Trieste Restaurant Cookbook: Gourmet, Old-World Italian Cookbook
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“What a fantastic cookbook! I’ve been longing for even just the fried zucchini recipe, but now I have them all. Can’t wait to cook the whole book. Yum” – L
Old Trieste Restaurant Cookbook is a timeless book filled with family recipes and history that made it famous for more than 55 years. With this guidebook, readers can learn to cook classic dishes from fine Italian cuisine. These include Chicken Livers Trieste, Signature Lemon, and White Wine Fish, Veal Parmigiana, Filet Mignon Marsala, Scampi Trieste, Calamari Fritti, Lobster Fra Diavolo. Besides, all of the house-made sauces and salad dressings, classic cocktails, and the Signature Fried Zucchini are also instructed.
More than that, also appeared in this cookbook is the list of food merchants that the restaurant used to serve dishes such as fresh Italian bread, fine meats and seafood, chocolate truffle cake, spumoni ice cream, and Tiramisu flew in from Italy!
About the Author: This book is created by the author Larry Tomicich and Family, editor Inc., Pique Publishing, and photographer Paula Luna.
Larry Tomicich is the son of Tommy Tomicich, the founder of Old Trieste Restaurant, and the name of the restaurant is named after his birthplace. In the spring of 2019, when the restaurant closed, Larry Tomicich compiled and brought the restaurant’s old-world, gourmet, Italian recipes into this cookbook.
My Calabria: Rustic Family Cooking from Italy’s Undiscovered South
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“Regional Cooking at its Finest.” – Angela M. Mogin
Calabria is a beautiful, mountainous region located at the end of Italy. Fishers and small farmers populate this area. In this rocky landscapes, Rosetta Costantino grew up in a family with a shepherd father and winemaker mother.
When her family moved to California, they created a small Calabria on their house by planting eggplant, tomatoes, and peppers and cooking. Fresh ricotta is made from scratch, and pasta is all handmade. Calabrians are experts at preserving by transforming fresh figs into jam, canning fresh tuna in oil, and sun-drying peppers for the winter.
In the first cookbook of a little-known region of Italy, My Calabria, Rosetta shares the story of her family and opens the world of pure Calabrian food to the readers. People will find the celebration of the region’s landscape richness and the charm of its cuisine. Within 100 color photos and enormous recipes about all of the outstanding South dishes, this cookbook shows us how creative and resourceful cooks can create a superb cuisine.
About the Author: Rosetta Costantino was born and brought up in Verbicaro, Calabria, Italy. Later on, Rosetta Costantino writes cookbooks and teaches cooking classes in Oakland, California. She also organizes Culinary Tours that could be signed up on her website cookingwithrosetta.com.
Janet Fletcher, a reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle, is the author of numerous books about food and wine. She lives in Napa Valley.
The North End Italian Cookbook, 6th: The Bestselling Classic Featuring Even More Authentic Family Recipes
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“The North End Italian Cookbook was highly recommended to me by a friend who happens to be Italian!!! She has an ancient edition! I ordered one for me and one for my daughter! Great recipes and the majority of ingredients are easily purchased in any local grocery store.” – Cheryl Z
When you think of Boston’s North End, you will see a place full of great food. Italian markets filled with strings of thick sausage, great wheels of cheese, seafood, dark chocolate, and fresh fruits line the streets. From the old to the young, the cooks of this Italian-American neighborhood have turned these beautiful ingredients into unforgettable meals.
For more than 30 years, Marguerite DiMino Buonopane, one of the North End’s most famous cooks, has published her secrets to creating this culinary tips in your kitchen. Now she collects more than 275 of her tasty recipes attached with mouth-watering color photos. The result is a full-color, deluxe edition of a treasured cookbook classic welcomed by many readers.
About the Author: Marguerite DiMino Buonopane is the host of the legendary luncheons and former restaurant chef-owner at the old North End Union, a nonprofit community settlement house. While writing her book, she also taught cooking classes in Boston’s North End, where she has lived most of her life.
Let’s Cook Italian, A Family Cookbook: Cuciniamo italiano, Un ricettario di famiglia
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“One of the best books I ever purchased. Simple & easy recipes & tools. My 9-year-old enjoys it really much.” – Sabrina
In Italian, “A tavola non si invecchia.” means “At the table with good friends and family, you do not become old.” So this colorfully illustrated bilingual cookbook gathers over 30 most classic, traditional Italian dishes from Spaghetti Carbonara to Tiramisu and optimizes them for your whole family to cook and enjoy together, along with notes on Italian culture and menu suggestions.
With keen attention to fresh ingredients and hands-on preparation, chef and director of the cooking school “La Scuola della Cucina Italiana” Anna Prandoni presents recipes for authentic Italian starters, first and second courses, vegetables, desserts, and snacks. Each left-hand page in English is mirrored in Italian on the right, and food terms are explained bilingually throughout that create the perfect format for language learning.
This book also features “With the Kids” sidebars highlighting cooking tasks that will delight the kids with imagination and creativity and bring back your childhood memories of helping out in the kitchen. Notes accompany all recipes on Italian ingredients and culinary culture.
About the Author: Anna Prandoni is a writer and journalist who has worked in the food and wine field for over 15 years. She has a particular interest in the history of nutrition and its influence on Italian culture. In 2014, she was selected as an Italian ambassador in the network WE-Women for Expo. She has also worked as director of the cooking school, La Scuola della Cucina Italiana and Gualtiero Marchesi Cooking Academy in Milan.
One of her tributes is book series for DeVecci Publishing House dedicated to the healthy kitchen, the ethnic kitchen, and books devoted to Italian regional cooking. Besides that, she also works as the creative director of unaricettaalgiorno.it, Milano Secrets (milanosecrets.it), and the community gathering project for floral design, photography, and culinary art Potluck (mypotluck.it).
Mozza at Home: More than 150 Crowd-Pleasing Recipes for Relaxed, Family-Style Entertaining: A Cookbook
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“Approachable for the serious home cook” – MDL San Diego
As an acclaimed chef and the owner of six busy restaurants across two continents, Nancy Silverton spent most of her time in the professional kitchen for years and forgot the last time she cooked at home. Intensely concentrating on the business made her leave behind what she loves cooking at the beginning.
These include fabulous seasonal ingredients, simple family-style food, and a dinner table with her love gathering around. So on a refreshing trip to Italy, Nancy began to cook for friends and family again, and rediscovered the great tastes of cooking and eating at home.
In Mozza at Home, Nancy shares her renewed passion and offers nineteen menus packed with easy-to-follow recipes that can be prepared beforehand without any fancy restaurant equipment. Organized by meal, each list provides the main dish along with a complimentary choice of appetizers and side dishes.
You can also mix and match all the options depending on the size of your gathering. There’s also an entire chapter dedicated to end-of-meal treats such as Devil’s Food Rings with Spiced White Mountain Frosting that can be prepared hours before serving so that the host gets to relax during the event.
With smart tips on how to organize your table and your time when serving many guests, Mozza at Home helps you throw the perfect dinner party, one that’s positively stress-free and delicious!
About the Author: Nancy Silverton is the co-owner of several restaurants like Osteria Mozza, Pizzeria Mozza, Chi Spacca, and Mozza2Go, in Los Angeles, Singapore, and Newport Beach, California. She is the founder of the La Brea Bakery and is the only chef to be awarded both the Outstanding Chef and Outstanding Pastry Chef awards from the James Beard Foundation.
Beside Mozza at home, Silverton is the writer of nine cookbooks as A Twist of the Wrist, Nancy Silverton’s Sandwich Book, Nancy Silverton’s Pastries from the La Brea Bakery (recipient of a 2000 Food & Wine Best Cookbook Award), Nancy Silverton’s Bread from the La Brea Bakery, and Desserts.
Carolynn Carreño is a James Beard Award-winning columnist and the co-author of many cookbooks. Some of them are meat (with Pat LaFrieda), The Mozza Cookbook and A Twist of the Wrist (with Nancy Silverton), Eat Me (with Kenny Shopsin), Fresh Every Day and Sara Foster’s Casual Cooking (with Sara Foster), and 100 Ways to Be Pasta (with Wanda and Giovanna Tornabene). She lives in New York and San Diego.
We hope you like this post and finally find out your favorite Italian family cookbooks. Meanwhile, we welcome you to explore our site and discover more cookbook recommendations from the same cuisine below.
