Pasta Grannies: The Official Cookbook: The Secrets of Italy’s Best Home Cooks

This delightful book takes you into the kitchens of people who know what pasta is really all about – great flavor from great ingredients, shared with those you love. Their expertise doesn’t hurt either! These Pasta Grannies are not professional chefs, but rather home cooks who have been making pasta for decades. By necessity they use the freshest and most local ingredients, grown in their own home gardens or locally foraged, to create pasta dishes that include nuts and herbs, vegetables and pulses, seafood, and even meat. You will find recipes for gnocchi, ravioli, tortelli, and all sorts of shapes that marry with their sauces perfectly, perfected through years of repetition.

To be honest, the expertise of these women makes these recipes a bit intimidating, especially to someone who is not a cooking novice. But pasta is actually quite forgiving, and the recipes are very clear and kind to anyone trying to learn this skill. Watching the Pasta Grannies YouTube channel can help too. The way these grannies can whip out pasta shapes is astonishing. However, even if you are not quite ready to attempt pasta-making, the book is a lovely read as it introduces you to amazing women whom you will quickly come to respect, admire, and love.