Italian Cooking Like Nonna: Authentic Family Recipes with Extraordinary Flavor and Endless Variations

By Caroline De Luca

Recreate Your Favorite Italian Meals at Home

Caroline De Luca comes from a big family from the South of Italy. Growing up, she was fascinated by how her nonna and mother could whip up delicious meals with ease and confidence, featuring the simple, fresh ingredients they had on hand. As she got older, Caroline began creating recipes that were simple and rooted in family heritage while following this adaptable, intuitive approach. And now you can too!

This collection of more than 60 recipes celebrates the traditions of classic Italian cooking with room for you to make it personal and fresh. With each base recipe, Caroline provides gentle guidance and ideas for how you can tweak it. Recipes like Orecchiette with Broccoli & Sausages, Rotolo di Spinaci and Swiss Chard & Mushroom Calzone are absolutely delicious and easy to adapt with produce that’s in season. Caroline’s Ricotta Gnudi with Lemon Butter & Sage Sauce is incredible on its own, and even better with your personal herb choices. Slow-roasted meats like Nonna Rosa’s Osso Buco are rich, tender and super flavorful, with ample opportunity to change up the flavor profile with herbs and spices.

From pasta and pizza to antipasto, sides and sweets, these special recipes invite you to cherish memories in the kitchen and rediscover the incredible flavors of authentic Italian food.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Macmillan Publishers
• Release date: Jan 11, 2022
• ISBN: 9781645673934

Book preview

Chapter One

The Complete Italian Essentials

There is something so very therapeutic about making something by hand. For a few hours it takes you away, and you’re completely focused on what you are creating. Growing up, everything was homemade, whether it be a sweet dessert, pasta or pizza. This is the family tradition I have followed throughout the years and still continue to this very day.

When you grow up in an Italian household, knowing basic cooking essentials is expected. Obviously, the different techniques require some practice and time to learn, but they are embedded in us at a very young age. We are shown how to mix flour, eggs and water together, kneading the dough to make homemade tagliatelle, or how to keep a close eye on the yeast to see when it is proved enough to be able to add it to the flour when making bread. I was lucky enough to be surrounded by people in my family who loved to cook. I would study their techniques and learn how to make them my own.

No Italian kitchen would be complete without the fundamentals, and in this chapter I take you on a journey to show you how you can make your own homemade delights that can include the whole family. I believe every good Italian pasta or pizza dish starts with a magnificent sauce, which is why I have included my Mum’s Homemade Sugo di Pomodoro. This is not only a delicious sauce, but it also allows you to freely alter and adapt according to your palate, including a meaty, rich Bolognese Sauce and a Vegetarian Sauce.

Pasta is another standout homemade essential, and in this chapter you can experiment with the different techniques to make traditional homemade pasta, which then can be used in one of the many recipes in my Pasta Perfetto chapter. Try my Fettuccine Puttanesca with homemade fettuccine using the guide on or homemade cavatelli with semolina flour.

Learning these simple techniques has helped me become a better cook and appreciate how much love and passion goes into it all. Once you learn the art of making the basics, they will become part of you.

Mum’s Homemade Sugo di Pomodoro

Sugo di pomodoro (tomato sauce) is a staple in any Italian household and is the base of Italian cooking. The beauty of this recipe is that it is extremely versatile and can be used in many other Italian dishes. Toward the end of summer, my entire family would get together on a Saturday morning for a busy day ahead, to create a year’s worth of sauce. These jars would be given to the family by the case to be used in many dishes all year.

My brother and I, being the only children at the time, would help out any way we could—whether it was feeding the fresh tomatoes through the tomato milling machine or filling up many empty beer bottles of fresh product. At the end of the day, we would be covered head to toe in tomatoes, enjoying every moment and never wanting it to end. It is a childhood memory that will be with me forever.

Italian mothers all have a signature dish that they cook religiously. From chicken cutlets and baked fish to pasta or meatballs, there is always one thing they cook really well. In my mum’s case it is sugo di pomodoro. I remember walking into the kitchen while it was simmering on the stove, thinking it was the best thing in the world, and it was! There is nothing like the taste of fresh homemade pasta sauce spread all over crusty ciabatta.

Of course, we tend to go a little overboard on quantities, but it is all for a very good reason. You never know when an emergency container of sauce will be needed at any given time. When we make large batches of this sauce, we divide it into smaller containers and freeze it, so it can be added to other dishes.

I’ve spoken to so many people, and they each have their own signature tomato sauce recipe. From fresh or canned tomatoes to adding anchovies or beef bones, they have created their own singular versions of sauce and have passed them on to the next generation.

There are absolutely no rules when it comes to making this sauce. I’ve started off with a classic base, which you can experiment with as much as your heart desires. This is absolutely perfect for some of the recipes I have in this cookbook: Involtini di Melanzane, Rotolo di Spinaci Beef Braciole and Classic Margherita Pizza, just to name a few.

Think about the dish you want to make and ask yourself what ingredients would complement it. Use your imagination; the possibilities are endless! I strongly urge you to be as creative as you can in the kitchen. Building on my mum’s signature recipe, I’ve added some lovely alternatives and additions so you can make your own sugo di pomodoro.

The following recipe makes quite a large batch, so it’s perfect for dividing into containers to freeze. The sauce can be kept in the freezer for up to 3 months and can be used for pizzas, pastas, focaccias, meat, fish and seafood dishes. The sauces that follow this (Bolognese, Vegetarian and Hazelnut Pesto are the starting point from which you can adapt your own distinctive flavors that your whole family will enjoy.

Makes 67.6 oz (2 L)

Ingredients

¼ cup (60 ml) extra virgin olive oil

2 or 3 cloves garlic, roughly chopped

1 white onion, finely chopped

2 tbsp (30 g) butter

2 tbsp (30 g) tomato paste

1 (14-oz [400-g]) can diced tomatoes

2 (25-oz [700-g]) bottles passata or 2 (28-oz [800-g]) cans tomato puree

1 or 2 bay leaves

Fresh or dried herbs, such as rosemary, oregano, thyme or basil, to taste 1–2 tsp (2–4 g) dried red pepper flakes (optional)

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method

In a large saucepan, heat the olive oil over low heat. Add the garlic and onion, and cook for 2 to 3 minutes, until the onion is translucent. Add the butter and stir until melted. Stir in the tomato paste and cook it for 1 to 2 minutes, until it melts into the butter. Tomato paste is very concentrated, so this method will allow its intense flavor to come out and create a really rich