Peter Reinhart’s Artisan Breads Every Day
Peter Reinhart has done it again giving us yet another indispensible resource for making excellent breads at home. In this book Reinhart takes the basic principles behind no-knead bread and applies them to his own formulas and techniques. The result is a sort of hybrid that, while a bit more involved than other no-knead recipes, still cuts down on active time, and results in some of the best breads you will ever make.
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Seafood alla Siciliana
In the cookbook Seafood alla Siciliana: Recipes and Stories from a Living Tradition, author Toni Lydecker takes us with her on a trek through Sicily in which she visits fishermen, fish mongers, restaurant chefs and home cooks all over the Island. The result is a comprehensive and evocative volume on the rich culinary tradition of Sicilian Seafood that not only gives us great recipes, but an insight on how history and tradition have shaped the wonderfully eclectic cooking of the island.
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The Italian Baker
There are newer bread baking books out there (this was first published in 1991) that cover more than just Italian bread, but I find that when it comes to the Italian breads the recipes in those books just don’t come out the way I think Italian bread should be. The authenticity of the bread coupled with the recipes for pizza, focaccia, and Italian tarts, cakes and cookies make this a book a must for anybody interested in Italian baking.
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American Pie: My Search for the Perfect Pizza
Follow bread expert Peter Reinhart’s delicious journey from Italy to America’s best pizzerias, then bring those techniques home. This isn’t your basic pizza cookbook—expect professional cold fermentation methods, detailed dough science, and recipes that produce restaurant-quality crusts. For serious home bakers ready to elevate their pizza game.
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Marcella Says…
Learn authentic Italian cooking from legendary teacher Marcella Hazan through this master class in book form. Featuring 120 new recipes plus essential technique lessons like insaporire (developing flavor), this book teaches you that proper method matters more than specialty ingredients. Perfect for intermediate cooks ready to move beyond basics and truly understand Italian cooking fundamentals.
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The Da Fiore Cookbook: Recipes from Venice’s Best Restaurant
Bring Venice’s Michelin-starred Osteria da Fiore into your kitchen with recipes from Chef Mara Martin’s renowned restaurant. Specializing in Venetian seafood classics like sweet and sour sardines and spaghetti with clams, plus elegant dishes like Pumpkin Gnocchi with Parmigiano and White Truffles. Recipes are beautifully written and surprisingly accessible for home cooks seeking authentic Venetian cuisine.
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The Silver Spoon
The definitive Italian cookbook with over 2,000 authentic recipes spanning every region and course. This beautifully illustrated 1,264-page masterpiece covers everything from classic Spaghetti Carbonara to regional specialties, with chef-curated menus and color-coded categories for easy navigation. Often called the “Italian Joy of Cooking,” it’s essential for any serious home cook—accessible for beginners yet comprehensive enough for experienced chefs.
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Italian Family Dining
Here is a cookbook that truly understands how Italians eat. “Italian meals are structured in a way that keeps family and friends at the table,” the introduction tells us. The focus on family and friends eating together is a central theme throughout this book. In addition to being family-centric, the Italian way of eating is closely tied to the seasons. Italians eat based on what is locally available at that time of year; therefore a hearty winter meal will be quite different than a light summer lunch.
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The Perfect Scoop
The ultimate ice cream cookbook from former Chez Panisse pastry chef David
Lebovitz, featuring 200 recipes for ice creams, gelatos, sorbets, and
granitas. Learn both French custard-based and Philadelphia no-cook methods,
with flavors ranging from classic vanilla and chocolate to adventurous basil,
pear-pecorino, and Guinness-milk chocolate. Indispensable for anyone with an
ice cream maker.
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A16: Food + Wine
A16 is an acclaimed restaurant in San Francisco, inspired by the food from the Campania region in southern Italy. It is named after the highway that runs through Campania connecting Naples to Puglia. A16: Food and Wine, a cookbook by A16’s executive chef and Wine Director, Nate Applemen and Shelly Lindgren respectively, is an excellent guide to the wines and peasant food of Campania and nearby regions.
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Sicily: Culinary Crossroads
Italy’s Food Culture is a series of regional Italian cookbooks, translated into English, from publisher Oronzo Editions. Two volumes have been released so far, Puglia: A Culinary Memoir and Sicily: Culinary Crossroads. The noble goal of this series is to give the American reader an unfiltered look into the rich regional culinary history and recipes of Italy, and it is off to a great start.
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Puglia: A Culinary Memoir
The first book in the new Italy’s Food Culture series of cookbooks, translated from the original Italian, by Oronzo Editions, Puglia: A Culinary Memoir, covers a regional cuisine that I would venture not too many Americans are familiar with. Personally, I did not know much about the cooking of the Puglia. Being a bread baker, I was familiar with the two famous breads from the region, Pane Pugliese and Pane di Altamura, but that was extent of my knowledge, before reading this volume. The author, Maria Pignatelli Ferrante, does a comprehensive job of chronicalling what the preface refers to as “the miracle of the cooking of Puglia.”
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