Seeking kitchen inspiration for the home cooks (just about everyone these days) on your holiday gift list? No worries, we have you covered. For our 2020 cookbook roundup, we asked a group of highly accomplished Italian chefs to share their favorite recipe book or one that’s been an inspiration. Collectively, their impressive credentials include cookbook authors, James Beard award winners, and Michelin stars. These selections are unique, unexpected, and top-notch, just like their food. Although some books were published decades ago, all are readily available for purchase.
Additionally, for a complete cookbook selection, you can check some new releases recently featured on La Cucina Italiana: Il Buco by Donna Lennard with Joshua David Stein; Old World Italian by Mimi Thorisson; Sant Ambroeus: The Coffee Bar Cookbook; The Barbuto Cookbook by Jonathan Waxman; The Italian Slow Cooker by Michele Sciolone.
With so many great options, no doubt, you’re going to want to treat yourself as well.
Chef Stefano Secchi: Rezdôra, New York, NY
Bread is Gold
By: Massimo Bottura
Publisher: Phaidon
“Bread is Gold is a fantastic book from great chefs all over the world. It shows you how to prepare dishes with ingredients that might be past their prime and I really love the worldly view on very simple food, cooked from experience and necessity.”
Universally celebrated Chef Massimo Bottura has made it a lifelong mission to eliminate food waste. In 2015 he rebuilt an abandoned theater into Refettorio Ambrosiano, a community soup kitchen. Bottura invited over 60 chefs to create three-course meals at the space using supermarket surplus items. Famous participants included Alain Ducasse, Daniel Humm, and Rene Redzepe. An essential kitchen resource that shares the story behind the Refettorio project and the chefs’ recipes.
*Bonus
La Grande Cucina delle Osterie d'Italia (Italian)
By: Unknown
Publisher: Slow Food Editore
“This is one of my favorite books because it visits the best osteria's in Italia and discusses regions and their specific dishes. So much inspiration can be found here and it's a great way to see the breadth of regional cooking in Italia.”
If you want to brush off your Italian and dive into authentic regional cuisine, this cookbook offers one hundred original recipes illustrated by 300 images from some of the best osterie in Italy. It is a unique journey in the Italian culinary history.
Chef Marc Forgione: Peasant; Marc Forgione, New York, NY
Cooking by Hand
By: Paul Bertolli
Publisher: Clarkson Potter
“I bought this book in my early 20’s I think. It’s almost falling apart now. Chef Bertolli breaks down everything to the core of what the dish or technique should be. Truly Italian in the sense that he takes the local produce and animals and turns them into something simple yet spectacular.”
A vivid collection of personal essays and recipes, encouraging readers to become more creatively involved in the food they make. The groundbreaking pasta chapter suggests taking the time to mill your own flour so that the noodle becomes the standout. There is a recipe for balsamic vinegar and a section devoted to whole-hog cooking including making salumi. This is a must-read for the culinary-obsessed.
Chef Alfred Portale: Portale Restaurant, New York, NY
Flour + Water: Pasta
By: Thomas McNaughton with Paolo Lucchesi
Publisher: Ten Speed Press
"I love Chef Thomas McNaughton’s Flour + Water cookbook for demystifying the whole pasta making process and making it more accessible. The recipes within are very clever and straightforward, and I have taken inspiration from a number of its dishes over the last few years. Plus, it’s beautifully photographed, which is something I really value in a cookbook."
Making homemade pasta is an activity the entire family can do together, no matter the wide-ranging skill levels. Thomas McNaughton, chef/owner of the San Francisco-based restaurant flour + water, shares the artisanal secrets he learned while working in a Bologna pasta factory. Recipes range from his favorite bigoli with fresh shelling beans, tomato and pancetta to more ambitious creations like pumpkin tortelloni with sage and pumpkin seeds.
Chef Steven Brown: Giulia; Tilia; St. Genevieve, Minneapolis, MN
Friuli Food and Wine
By: Bobby Stuckey, Lachlan Mackinnon-Patterson, Meredith Erickson
Publisher: Ten Speed Press
“A great job of capturing the spirit of the region.”
Friuli, a hidden gem linking the Alps and the Adriatic Sea, has a food and wine culture that's one of the world's best. Beautifully photographed, this partial cookbook, travelogue, and wine guide offers regional recipes for dishes like squash gnocchi with smoked ricotta sauce and chicken marcundela with cherry mostarda and potato puree. Coupled with local winemakers' profiles and wine pairings, one can easily transport to the mountains, sea, and vineyards of northeastern Italy with each page turn.
Chef Michael Tusk: Cotogna; Quince, San Francisco, CA
Le Ricette Regionali Italiane
By: Anna Gosetti della Salda
Publisher: Solares
"It was one of the books I purchased on my very first trip to Italy. I treat it like a bible. Every region set up by category, it is so easy to educate cooks on Italian Cucina. Great illustrations and super well organized... I just love it."
This text requires an Italian-English dictionary, but it’s worth the extra effort. Fans rave it’s the most comprehensive, practical manual for making traditional regional recipes. Never out of print since its publication in 1967, this cookbook is beloved by professional chefs and home cooks throughout Italy. Recipes for 2000 dishes representing every region in the Italian boot are thoughtfully written by the author, who made four solo roundtrips across the country to get things perfect.
Chef Barbara Lynch: The Butcher Shop; Menton; No. 9 Park; Sportello; and three more eateries, Boston, MA
Pasta Grannies
By: Vicky Bennison
Publisher: Hardie Grant
“Right now, I am loving Pasta Grannies (The Official Cookbook: The Secrets of Italy’s Best Home Cooks) by Vicky Bennison. I follow them on social media and watch their videos often, so it’s been fun to thumb through the cookbook. Usually though, I tend to turn to more regionally specific Italian cookbooks.”
La Cucina Italiana wrote about this book and the octogenarian YouTube sensations that were its catalyst. Since its publication last fall, subscribers have grown by over 250,000. Rated the #1 best-selling Italian cookbook on Amazon, the Italian nonne featured throughout these pages impart their Old World culinary skills and recipes for pasta and sauces, once a necessity for survival, now a disappearing art.
Chef Missy Robbins: Lilia; Misi , Brooklyn, NY
The Splendid Table
By: Lynne Rossetto Kasper
Publisher: William Morrow
“Lynne Rossetto Kasper encourages you to fully understand regional Italian cuisine! She delves solely into the food of Emilia-Romagna. It is also just timeless in its presentation and focuses on tradition, technique and stories. There are no trends. Just a simple, authentic, wonderfully true look into this cuisine -- quite an education."
Provided American readers with their first introduction to the regional cuisine of Emilia-Romagna. Initially published in 1992, James Beard and Julia Child Cookbook of the Year awards soon followed. Recipe highlights include linguine with braised garlic and balsamic vinegar, tortellini artichokes and mascarpone, and torta barozzi, a chocolate cake. The reason the popular public radio show, The Splendid Table and award-winning podcast exists.
