Cooking with Nonna

I received a free electronic copy of Cooking with Nonna: More Than 100 Classic Family Recipes for your Italian Table for my honest review. Being Italian myself, I appreciate a good Italian cookbook. I absolutely love this cookbook. I enjoyed the stories, especially how Sundays are for family and food. This book guide's you with step-by-step recipes from pasta dough, sauces, appetizers, soups, salads, veggies, side dishes and the tools needed to make them. My favorite recipes from the cookbook were Stuffed Artichokes, Sicilian rice balls, Stuffed Mushrooms, Artichoke Pie and of course Sicilian Cannoli's. Beautiful pictures to along side the recipes. I will be purchasing a copy of this book to have in my kitchen and will also be purchasing a few for gifts for my friends. What a treat taking a stroll into Nonna's Kitchen.

I grew up in an area with a large and vibrant Italian immigrant community. We had a lot of really good Italian restaurants, an annual Italian heritage festival, even an Italian language local radio station. I grew up, moved out of the area and found myself looking forward to trips back, so I could get my real Italian food fix.

Even though my own family are Irish (through and through), my closest friends were almost all Italian, and I grew up eating and loving so much beautiful Italian food. I even had my own honorary Nonna Giulia, my best friend's grandmother.

This book is packed full of real Italian home cooking recipes. The pictures of family gatherings made me very nostalgic. There's a real connection between family and food. Hospitality means feeding people with love. That's a very basic and very real connection; one that this book celebrates and illustrates very well.

It starts with an introduction, including two vital basics of Italian cooking, pasta doughs and sauces. There is also a good basic introduction of tools and techniques. The intro chapters comprise about 10% of the total content and do a good job of building up to the techniques and recipes which come after. And wow, what recipes they are! Nearly every recipe I remember adoring as a kid is included in this book, pasta e fagioli, focaccia, veal, tortelli, gnocchi, and hundreds more.

The recipes are arranged in chapters in order of their place in a meal; appetizers, soups & salads, vegetables, pasta & first course, second courses, pasta & breads, desserts, and cookies.

I've tried several of the recipes included in the book and in every way they've lived up to my memories of special occasion foods from my past. The seven layer cookies (which, admittedly are Italian-American) were fabulous and didn't last out the evening. Pasta e fagioli soup with foccacia bread was a simple, warming, wonderful meal. These recipes are beautifully simple and do-able. I'm NOT a gifted cook, but the instructions and tutorial photographs are well done and the results are wonderful.

This is a good all-around Italian cookbook and has many regional specialty recipes.

Cooking With Nonna is a warm and inviting cookbook with delicious well prepared dishes. 248 pages, by Rosella Rago, published by Quarto - Race Point.

Four stars plus nostalgia and *yum* value.

I requested this book based on a review from Goodreads' friend, Selena. She is Italian, and she said found the recipes authentic and traditional. I zipped over to Netgalley so I could try this one out, too. Italian food is my favorite, and while I'm a vegetarian and will have to modify the meat-based recipes, I found a slew of classic and new recipes I can't wait to try.

The cookbook is organized beautifully. The decorations on the pages just add to its verity. The background section is heartwarming, and the essentials are helpful. The recipes are thorough but approachable. I can't wait to make Chicory with Fave Bean Purée, Pasta with Lentils, Four Cheese Tortellini with Swiss Chard in a Sage and Butter Sauce, Bucatini with Cauliflower, the Ricotta Cheesecake, the Sicilian Cannolis, among many others. I went to Sicily a few years ago, and on a spent crater of Mount Etna, I was given the most delicious cannoli I've had in my life. I've tried to recreate that experience with cannolis, but have not been successful. Have I mentioned I love love love cannolis? This cookbook is divine. I will be purchasing a physical copy for myself and a couple more as gifts.

Thank you to Rossella Rago, Race Point Publishing, and Netgalley for the ARC to review.

Cooking with Nonna by Rossella Rago features stories from Italian grandmothers who share their love of cooking through their stories and recipes. You will also find information on how to set up your pantry for Italian cooking. You will also find many color recipes illustrating the recipes or recipe techniques. Some of the recipes you'll find include:

Peppers and Eggs
Beef Broth Soup with Cut Spaghetti
Cavatelli with Broccoli
Sicillian Pizza
Wedding Cake
Almond Cookies with Cherries

Recommend.

Review written after downloading a galley from NetGalley.

Is it possible to feel nostalgic for a childhood you never had? I never knew my grandmothers, but I always wish I had. Lucky for us, Rossella Rago decided to record for posterity all the authentic Italian dishes that she and other Italians grew up eating, cooked with love by their nonnas (grandmother in Italian). Growing up in an Italian-heavy neighborhood, I’ve always admired how simple yet brilliant Italian cooking is. It’s my fiance’s favorite cuisine, so I’ve been searching for an Italian staple cookbook for a while. I have a good feeling that Cooking with Nonna will be that cookbook for our family.

The recipes range from staples like Spaghetti and Meatballs and Sicilian Cannoli to more obscure Italian dishes I have never heard of, such as Sicilian Timballo and Mafaldine Pasta with Anchovies. All of them sounded delicious, reasonably easy to prepare, and had a certain credibility to them that only an Italian nonna can lend. About half are paired with a photograph and most of them also come with a helpful tip to ensure that the results come out as good as Nonna's. Contrary to my expectation that all the recipes would come from Rossella Rago's nonna, they are actually from a group of nonnas that are not all related. Some are the author's great-aunts, while others are women she has met during the process of writing this book or filming her Youtube show (which I had never seen before reading this book).

The photographs are great, though I wish there were more. However, I understand that there are less photos in order to make room for the nonnas, which I greatly enjoyed. Every 3-4 recipes or so, there is a page dedicated to each nonna whose recipe appears in this book, who also imparts some words of wisdom after a lifetime of cooking and loving their families, which in Italian households go hand in hand. I grew up in a similar food-oriented culture, so even though I'm not Italian, a lot of it did remind me of my own childhood. I love hearing about how food brings other families together, and between all the remarkable, strong women featured in this book, there are thousands of years of wisdom shared amongst them all.

I would absolutely recommend this book to anyone who loves Italian food. In fact, it's already in my Amazon shopping cart. I can't wait to get started making some of these dishes, and I'm sure these family favorites will become favorites of my own family.

This fantastic cookbook features authentic Italian dishes passed down through generations of famikies. There are full color pictures of most recipes. This cookbook was a project by Rosella to preserve and pass down her Nonna's recipes, but along the way she included other people that have contributed to her television show as well. This is something special as she not only features these Nonna's recipes, but also many of the Nonnas themselves. This collaboration is a small sample of 110 delicious and easy to prepare dishes that are rich in flavor and history.

The book starts off with a list of essential tools to have in your kitchen, as well as staple ingredients to have on hand in your pantry and refrigerator. Then there is a section dedicated to basic pasta doughs and different varieties of pasta, plus recipes for four basic sauces.

Each recipe gives a short description and/or a small bit of history surrounding the dish. The recipe categories are as follows:
1. Appetizers
2. Soups and Salads
3. Vegetables and Sides
4. Pasta and First Courses
5. Second Courses
6. Pizza, Breads, and Savory Bakes
7. Desserts
8. Cookies

I would recommend this cookbook to anyone looking for authentic Italian cuisine that is fun and easy to prepare, and of course anyone that enjoys Rossella's cooking show. I received this as a free ARC from Quarto Publishing Group - Race Point Publishing on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I grew up cooking alongside my mother, and now my children cook with me, and in this way we pass on a wonderful tradition of cooking. I have scraps of recipes and one or two ancient recipe books from previous generations of cooks in my family that I treasure. So “Cooking with Nonna” is a superb book that records favourite Italian family recipes.

This is not a flashy, coffee table book and some of the photographs are a little dull, but the wonderful authentic recipes make the book special. I tried the Meatballs and they were delicious, so too were the Potato Croquettes (the addition of cheeses and mortadella gave them so much flavour!) Simple recipes like the Sausage and Peppers show that often the simplest of recipes can be delicious. Next on my list is to try Nonna Tina Sacramone’s Lasagne which has an unusual (for me, anyway!) method of rolling up the ricotta to make it easier to spread over the lasagna sheets. I found this tip, and many others in the book, really interesting.

The book is peppered with delightful anecdotes from the women who contributed recipes – the strength and resilience of these women, and their love of family and food made this a book to enjoy even if you never cook any of the recipes!

A few editing issues in the book are disappointing. Spinach and Rice Pie calls for 3 eggs, separated, then only uses 2 whole eggs and the recipe for Almond Cookies has 1 cup (200g) …….. in the ingredient list. You can work out that it is meant to be sugar, but this kind of error makes me concerned that there are other more critical errors in the book and detract from what is otherwise a delightful book.

Cooking with Nonna (grandmother/nanny to us Brits) is a wonderfully written Italian-American cookery book of traditional Italian recipes. It is full of excellent recipes from a variety of different nonnas the author has contacted and contains lots of colour photography.

There are 9 sections which include an introduction to the author and her nonna, appetizers, soups & salads, vegetables & side dishes, pasta & first course, second course, pizza, breads & savoury bakes, desserts, and cookies.

The introduction is a good base to get you started as there is tool section, instructions on how to make two types of fresh pasta, either by hand or using a stand mixer and explains which type of pasta dough is best for the various shapes and finally four different recipes of basic sauces which are then recommended as an accompaniment in the main recipe sections.

Interspersed within the sections are stories from some of the nonna's who's recipes have been included in this book, giving you an insight into their life. The recipes also have the Italian name, preparation and cooking times, servings and many come with a 'nonna says' tip such as freezing or not to cover crowd a pan.

I appreciated the way it has the grams next to the ingredients so no conversions were needed.

I received this eBook from Netgalley in return for a honest review.

Cooking with Nonna is an absolute gem of a cookbook! Not only are the recipes heavenly and vast but the food photography is drool worthy. But my favorite part of this book are the stories from varies women (all now Italian grandmothers) who tell of their past, how they learned to cook, and the importance of shared time over a simple or divine meal. Their stories were inspirational as many of them faced incredible hardships and challenges and managed to overcome them. These unique glimpses into their lives was unexpected from a cookbook but I cherished them more than the recipes.

Some of you may know Rossella Rago from her on-line/social-media cooking videos in which she cooks alongside an Italian or Italian-American grandmother (nonna). This book is an accompaniment to that series, featuring 100+ of the basic Italian and Italian-American recipes she's gleaned from various grandmothers who have been featured on her show.

The recipes cover meals from appetizers to desserts, with step by step instructions on how to make the dish, preparation times, cooking times and yields. Photos illustrate many important techniques, and show many of the finished dishes.

A few of the dishes may challenge experienced cooks, but this is really a basic to intermediate book. I expect that the sequel will feature advanced dishes. Each recipe is prefaced by a short and entertaining introduction by the author.

The filtered images take on a nostalgic feel, which is intentional, and helps to blend the down-to-earth grandmothers with Rossella's at times too-Hollywood style. The author hopes to create nostalgia for the traditional Sunday dinners she grew up with.

If you didn't grow up with that tradition, the stories from the various grandmothers may inspire you to create the tradition for your own family. The one page life stories about each grandmother are fascinating slices of immigrant life, in which home-cooked meals equate directly with love. One grandmother insists:

“You've got love the food like you love your boyfriend.”

Just love this book, being from Italian origins, I found this book reminding me of my roots, most of the recipes are similar to the ones my grandfather, mother and father used to cook. (my grandmother was Austrian, that is a different world again). My grandfather was Sicilian, and when he and the family migrated to Australia after WW2, he bought much of his cooking and style to Australia - I had the good fortune to grow up eating much the same way.
This book is fabulous the stories of the various nonnas are very interesting and the recipes are easy to make and pretty authentic. Fabulous photos and a well laid out book, covers from pasta dough, sauces and different courses right up to cake.

This is an excellent cookbook full of good recipes, stories and easy to follow instructions. For me and I am sure others that grew up in Italian homes some of the recipes are a little different than the ones my family made, and that I still make. Not taking anything away from the book it is always good to see variations on the same dish. I really enjoyed the dessert section with cannoli, ricotta cookies, and ricotta cheese cake, to name just a few. Also a recipe for Struffoli a classic dessert usually made at Christmas. Overall a very good book and the photographs were good as well.

I absolutely loved this cookbook! Being from an Italian family myself, I can definitely relate to all the stories and memories that were shared throughout the book. Inside this cookbook, you will find amazing recipes, pictures, and history! Highly Recommend!!!

In the spring of 2017, I had the distinct pleasure to be able to visit one of my former exchange students at her home in Italy. While Giulia stayed with us in the U.S., she enthralled us with tales of her "Nonna's" (grandmother) cooking (and wisdom), and made us many delicious dishes that Nonna had taught her. It was wonderful, but meeting Nonna was even better! My goodness, for someone in her nineties, that lady could cook! Meal after meal, course after course, for Giulia, her family, her aunts and uncles and their families, and us! I have never had so many great meals!
So, when NetGalley offered me a chance to read and review this book, I jumped at the opportunity. The author had her own Nonna. In fact, she jokes that she attended "Nonna's Brooklyn Basement Culinary Academy". That developed into her idea to start a cooking show, "Cooking With Nonna". She based the show on her grandmother's recipes. And that led to this book, a collection of 110 recipes from many Italian "Nonna's".
And what a collection! There are a lifetime of great recipes to try.
Rago breaks the book down into sections. Appetizers, Soups and Salads, Vegetables and Sides, Pasta (OF COURSE) and First Courses, Second Courses, Pizzas Breads and Savory Bakes, Desserts, and Cookies.
So many delicious ideas! My wife and I have tried several already, and quite successfully. It gives us great pleasure to cook together. Hopefully, this book will tide us over for the next couple of years, to a time when my wife retires also, and we make the move to Italy. I can only hope that we will find our own "Nonna" there!
A great book. Kudo's to the author for preserving these recipes, before they are lost to time!

It would be fun for everyone to have an Italian grandmother, but unfortunately, many of us don’t. There are dozens of cookbooks out there purporting to be written by Italian grandmothers, and some of these books are pretty good. Cooking with Nonna: Celebrate Food & Family With Over 100 Classic Recipes from Italian Grandmothers is one of those cookbooks, but it seems to be a cut above, featuring recipes for the expected classics, and also recipes that those of us who aren’t Italian probably haven’t heard of. The author, Rossella Rago, is the host of a cooking show, Cooking with Nonna, and she has included many of the recipes from guests on the show as well as those of her own grandmother. One Italian grandmother is good, but lots of Italian grandmothers are even better!

The book covers basics such as different pasta doughs and basic sauces. There are also interesting vignettes on the featured Nonnas, making this a cookbook that is also fun to read. The instructions in the recipes are easy to follow and most of the recipes are also easy to make.

I made the Focaccia Bread, Barese-Style first; it was easy (I mixed the dough in my automatic bread machine) and really good. The traditional Bolognese sauce is great, and so is the Zucchini Pie; every recipe I have tried so far has turned out picture perfect. I have a queue and plan to make Oven-Braised Cod with Scallions and Olives, Flourless Almond Torte, and the Gnocchi with Gorgonzola and Toasted Hazelnuts next. There are dozens of recipes that will appeal to almost everyone. These are not the standard recipes found in every Italian cookbook; rather they are unique and there are plenty to choose from.

While there are very nice photographs, it is a little disappointing that there aren’t photos of every dish. However, that should not stop anyone from buying this excellent cookbook. There are enough to make it interesting, and with digital cameras we can take pictures of our own finished dishes.

Cooks who want to expand their Italian recipe repertoire will benefit from and enjoy this cookbook.

Special thanks to NetGalley for supplying a review copy of this book.

Grandma's recipe are to be treasured........this book is to be treasured........

I received a copy from Netgalley (thank you) for review but that was both a good and unfortunate thing. My electronics just don't like the software needed to review Netgalley's graphic novels and a picture heavy book like this so I couldn't clearly see all the pictures. However, this cookbook is lush with them and with a lot of delicious sounding recipes (I haven't had time to try many yet). I have Italian nonnas on both sides of my family so this really made me think of them (they're both gone now) and all the great memories of cooking with them. I am definitely going to buy a physical copy of this. It's a great cookbook and worth the look.

I wish that I'd had an Italian grandmother to teach me to cook like this -- but this cookbook is the next best thing! My family liked everything we made from here (especially the desserts, of course)!

Rosella shares her grandmother delicious recipes. The book is a pearl in the ocean of cookbooks. Wonderful!