Pasta Grannies: The Secrets of Italy's Best Home Cooks

by Vicky Bennison

"When you have good ingredients, you don't have to worry about cooking. They do the work for you." – Lucia, 85

Inspired by the hugely popular YouTube channel of the same name, Pasta Grannies is a wonderful collection of time-perfected Italian recipes from the people who have spent a lifetime cooking for love, not a living: Italian grandmothers.

Featuring over 80 easy and accessible recipes from all over Italy, you will be transported into the very heart of the Italian home to learn how to make great-tasting Italian food. Pasta styles range from pici – a type of hand-rolled spaghetti that is simple to make – to lumachelle della duchessa – tiny, ridged, cinnamon-scented tubes that take patience and dexterity.

More than just a compendium of dishes, Pasta Grannies tells the extraordinary stories of these ordinary women and shows you that with the right know how, truly authentic Italian cooking is simple, beautiful and entirely achievable.

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Food, Nonfiction, Italy, Reference, Cuisine

256 pages, Hardcover

First published October 29, 2019

Reviews

[ReadAlongWithSue recovering from a stroke★⋆. ࿐࿔ · Rating 3 out of 5]

I very well illustrated book. I loved the photos of the “grannies” and the history and facts of it all.

Wasn’t impressed with the recipes as nothing there I’d make.

[Suzanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent blend of story, techniques, and recipes that is worth the read even if you don't cook any of the dishes.

My lone caution is that true kitchen novices might flounder a bit because a fair amount of kitchen savvy is assumed in the recipes. Don't let this scare you away, but be prepared to watch technique videos, ask Chef Google, and maybe even call your parents for tips.

[Gianna Lorandi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic recipe book. Loved all the hand shaped pasta. Just want to make every single recipe in this book!
Also really enjoy reading all the nannies' stories, so lovely.

[viktoria]

pre-read: There is a YouTube channel (and a cookbook) called Pasta Grannies.

Life is not always terrible.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a marvelous cookbook if you are looking for authentic from scratch Italian (not Italian American) recipes that are from older women that are treasures in Italy for their regional pasta recipes. Pasta Grannies are also on Youtube so you can view what they are teaching you. Lots of great stories about the regional pastas and how the collection came to be....so many great recipes in this book.

[Angela Gyurko · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite cookbooks have as much history and anthropology as recipes. I found Pasta Grannies via video, and having read the stories of these remarkable women, I now want to unleash my latent pasta-making skills. And to read their recipes and watch their videos, one realizes we all have latent pasta-making skills.

[Val · Rating 4 out of 5]

Simple recipes with short ingredient lists. My favorite thing about the book is the photography: beautiful photos of grannies and their pasta.

[Phil · Rating 5 out of 5]

I got this cooking book because of the Youtube series of the same name in which the author interviews and cooks with Italian grandmothers (mostly) in various parts of Italy about their distinctive pasta dishes. The recipes included here are a glimpse at both the festive and everyday regional pastas, whose use is gradually fading with this generation.

I should say that I got this as someone who loves to cook and has a genuine love of Italy (partly because of my studies and partly because of trips there). I enjoyed the stories about the pasta and life away the touristy areas that I've visited. They are important glimpses into Italian rural life in the last couple of generations. And the recipes are fun. I'm not sure if I'm liable to do any of them (some ingredients might be tricky to get here in North America), but they can give some ideas of different ways to use pasta.

This is well worth the read, if only to get a glimpse of a very different world.

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

The design of this book is quite lovely the pages are tipped in red ink, there is a separate insert done on the individual “grannies”, the photos are nice because they incorporated each person with the recipes. Unfortunately the overall recipes were not for me because I have no interest in making my own pasta, but overall, I appreciated the thought and effort that went into putting it together.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a really excellent guide for anyone wanting to make their own pastas, but more importantly, it profiles what kinds of sauces complement which shapes of pasta. It is definitely not for someone new to this level of cooking, you will require some skill or practice beforehand. The fact that every recipe comes direct from an Italian nonna of a certain age gives it a level of gravitas you can trust, and there are videos on YouTube of these grannies teaching how to make these recipes.

This is a really great resource, and I love all the included and well-researched history included in the book. Having spent some time in rural Italy, all of the pasta I ate was in fact made by nonnas, and the skill and flavor of each dish was remarkable. It seems hard to fathom that these recipes and techniques are vanishing, but they are. It's so important to not let regional recipes and food history become lost, and the author going to such lengths to record these and these women is truly commendable.

[Hannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cooking is magical transformation, sustenance, pleasure, tradition, nostalgia... and this book gathers all of them. While nearly all of the recipes are comprised of simple ingredients (homemade pasta/dumplings plus something saucy or brothy), it is delightful to see the array of outcomes that can be produced from very humble, similar starting ingredients. If you are looking for new, innovative ideas, this is not the place; these are time-tested mainstays through thick and thin -- the glimpses into the stories of the people behind these recipes brings everything together and makes you want to have pasta parties all the time, not only for the joy of it, but to keep these recipes and techniques alive.

[X · Rating 2 out of 5]

This read to me like a stocking-filler type cash in on a successful-ish YouTube channel.

The content was stretched very thin and repetitive - I really don't need a photo of yet another old Italian woman making yet another very local shape of pasta from the same dough recipe as any other granny!

It really left a bad taste of appealing to "well here's how one 90 year old woman has done this for 70 years, surely her recipe must be good?" in my mouth. Compared to other cookbooks that feature recipes designed, experimented on, retried and polished before publishing, I put very little stock in the quality of the recipes from Pasta Grannies.

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some delicious recipes, but it falls victim to the same problem so many other pasta cookbooks do: few photos of the pasta! Most have a photo of the pasta in use in a final dish, covered with sauce and other ingredients, but very few have photos of the shape of the pasta itself. Particularly for the more unusual shapes - because quite a few of these are not common pasta types everyone might be expected to know - it would be nice to have photos of what shape you're trying to make in case the written instructions aren't cutting it.

[Elle · Rating 5 out of 5]

My grandmother's kitchen once again

First of all, I'm pleased with the Kindle edition, which allows me to click on the Index and be taking directly to the recipe.

I remember my grandmother's kitchen and her incredible handmade pasta and suga. These recipes will make a fine addition to what I learned from her.

The stories, the pictures, all of this makes the recipes more personable to me, almost like being there to talk with the Pasta Grannie while she performs her magic.

[Cassandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a beautiful book. The physical book is so beautiful that I will probably not mark it up as I prepare the recipes -- I usually make notes in my cookbooks, but maybe not in this one.

This is a lovely blend of stories about the nannas, information about their way of preparing pasta and about the pasta shapes themselves, their regions and histories. I have not finished reading it and I haven't made any of the recipes yet, and will come back to finish this review when I have.

[kathryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

the "new format to you" square on book bingo is really hard when you've read every format of book possible except for braille and you have no idea how to read braille.

first and last cookbook that i'll ever read cover to cover, 4 stars because i hate when the photos next to a recipe aren't the results of said recipe being completed. very sweet and beautiful book tho! the insert that talks abt all the nonne is the reason i bought the book in the first place because i thought it was so cute

[Diana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love this book and how the recipes are from nonas who are 65years and above - going back to the roots of hand crafted pasta. If you do get the book be sure to follow them on one of the social media apps as the technique nicely comes together with the recipe.
This is the only cool book that I highly recommend.

[Ariane Seixas · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is beautiful. After purchasing Marcella Hazan's' Essentials of Italian Cooking' I never felt the need to buy another Italian book. But Pasta Grannies goes beyond that. It's not only about the recipes but the stories of those women, it's passing along their knowledge and traditions. The photos are stunning and I felt like having all of them as grand-mothers.

[Cherie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely to look at, would love to eat many of these recipes...but I don't have the time to peel tomatoes or make pasta from scratch. I wish I did, and could only do most of these recipes occasionally. But very authentic, made me think of my grandma (seeing recipes similar to some of hers...I miss her so).

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Delicious Recipes and great fun

I love this book for its Italian recipes and heart warming personal stories. Pasta Grannies gathers authentic pasta recipes from all over the country. It is a national treasure for the history it imparts thanks to the author, Vicky Bennison and each of the contributors for their oral histories.

[Aasinathena · Rating 5 out of 5]

Magic happens always when flour and eggs binds together. But its ethereal when Italian nonne does it when her heart and love kneads into the pasta dough ! Another reason to love simple regional Italian food !

[Pat · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is perfect for my holiday cooking! I consider myself a so-so home cook so I love the detailed instructions and the simplicity of the recipes. There are also some that use out-there ingredients (for my Asian tongue) that I'm excited to try!

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

very well written, engaging, and enjoyable as history. now to test the recipes! the youtube channel's book playlist is definitely a helpful visual for the pasta making techniques. it's so fun to have the nonnas' backgrounds and recipes in book format.

[Ghisela · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this cookbook! The recipes are easy and delicious; you really can't go wrong. Although, some items seem like they may be difficult to find; work with what you have and you can't go wrong. I feel like that's how a pasta granny would roll. Either way enjoy yourself and your cooking.

[Deborah Hughes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Home with nonna

What a wonderful book. You get to meet the grannies after you learn regional dish they made. These elderly are so industrious at their ages showing their craft of feeding their families

[Natalie Van Stone · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great source of information and practical pasta-making tips. Following the steps of the basic pasta making recipe here yielded amazingly perfect pasta. Very charmed by the stories and wisdom presented here.

[Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just beautiful.

[Stephanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gorgeous!

[Patty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Delicious!

[Mindy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful pictures and stories. Makes me miss all the opportunities I never had to cook with my Sicilian great grandmother.