19 Comments

I love how in depth these 2 recipes are. I think it really brings the recipes to life. Looking forward to making both.

My favorite Italian cookbook is Essentials of Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan. Every thing I have ever made from it has been delicious. I frequently give a collection of cookbooks as bridal shower gifts and it is always in the collection. I started collecting cookbooks in my 20s, way back in the 1980s. My husband used to say that I should get a job reading cookbooks. My collection is pretty big and varied. At one point I started donating some that I rarely used because I had nowhere to keep them and I have come to regret that decision. I have recently started cooking from cookbooks that I haven’t used in years and have re-discovered long ago favorites.

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If there isn’t a job reading cookbooks, we should invent one!

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founding

Marcella’s Essentials is also a fave🙋‍♀️

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I also use cookbooks more for inspiration than to actually cook from. But I love Saghar Setareh's cookbook, Pomegranates & Artichokes: Recipes and memories of a journey from Iran to Italy and Maria Pasquale's cookbook, The Eternal City: Recipes and stories from Rome. If you haven't seen them yet, you should check them out!

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founding

Pomegranates & Artichokes is on my TBR, good to know it’s good👍

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Mar 1Liked by Giulia Scarpaleggia

I am so glad to see that there are others that love collecting cookbooks as much I do! Reading through a good cookbook is like my mediation in the morning. I have many favorites, the most being Italian, since that is what I prefer cooking. I have favorite recipes in each but I use them mostly as inspiration. I love the idea of a cookbook club! I need to add a few more shelves to my pantry to store them all! Thank you Giulia for this wonderful idea!

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so glad you like the cookbook club, and I hope you will participate in our talks!

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I love collecting cookbooks, though I try to be selective about the ones I keep. My favourite Italian cookbook is Cucina Povera of course! I look forward to checking out the cookbooks you mentioned.

Some of my other general favourites are:

A Kitchen in France- Mimi Thorisson

French Country Cooking- Mimi Thorisson

Salt fat acid heat - Samin Nosrat

SABAI- Pailin Chongchitnant

The Brother Hubbard Cookbook- Garrett Fitzgerald

First we brunch- Rebecca Wellman

Korean Home Cooking- Sohui Kim

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Oh do I have a collection !!! I thin them out from time to time and then find more. I have 2 of my mother’s from the 40’s. Cucina Povera and From the Markets of Tuscany have been used often since our class with you but when I think back over the years my Laurels Kitchen books and Fix It and Forget It(crockpot cooking) are on the eye level shelf right outside my kitchen in our family room.

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I have limited space for my cookbooks, so I'm constantly "editing" the ones that I can keep. I have about 25-30 that are in my kitchen plus a few more that I can't let go, but rarely use, in other parts of the house.

I'm really looking forward to the Food of Sicily cookbook you have coming up in a couple months as I will be traveling to Sicily in September! I will also be going to Sardinia on that trip. Any chance you might include a Sardinian cookbook in the club this summer?

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I started collecting cookbooks in my 20s as souvenirs when traveling. Then onto subjects or food cultures that interested me. Now I have so many that I am gifting them away! My largest collection now is breads, sourdough and various other bread types. Between these and cooking classes (including yours! ), I’m always inspired to learn something new.

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The chicken looks wonderful. And I especially like the sensory cues in the recipe.

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So nice to read from other cookbook lovers who read them for sheer joy and inspiration. I build my "collection" (enormous...) mostly from used bookstores, gifts, and yard sales but also gift myself one or two new ones each year. The only cookbooks I follow to a T are those from Marcella Hazan: everything comes out perfect. From Italian cooks I learned restrain: few ingredients that shine. So different form lists of everything in the cupboard as in some other sources...I love discovering new cultures through food but also, like other writers, revisit the places where I travelled.

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My first cookbook was on Chinese Cooking by an author who I can’t remember. When I got married I worked my way through the Cordon Blue at Home.

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When we bought our house a few years ago, my husband built a bookcase in our kitchen for my cookbooks. I love it so much. I love looking at beautiful cookbooks of places I’ve never been, and I also love to buy cookbooks when I travel.

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I didn't start out collecting cookbooks but it has morphed into a collection and my husband gets annoyed sometimes when he sees a new one arrive...another cookbook with eyeroll! But then he gets to enjoy the fruits of it. I love to read each one and look through it to find a new gem to cook. I usually will choose a recipe and then shop for the ingredients and I always add my own twist to it. Sometimes I cook it just like the recipe but most times I will add my own spin to it. I have my favorite cookbooks that I am cooking from at the moment on my counter top book holder and my other favorites are lined up in my pantry. I love to see them in my open pantry area all colors and inspiration! Then the rest of my collection is lined up in my hutch in the dining room. It's hard to pick my absolute favorite! I have a whole wish list of others I want to buy.... Where will I put them all? I also have a huge notebook of recipes I have printed out from blogs or from friends etc. Then there is my little recipe box with our family recipes from my childhood that are comfort food and old faithfuls! I always write on my recipes in the books my notes on when I cooked it and tips I found while cooking it and if everyone liked it etc. You never know who will read these when I am gone. Sometimes I am afraid of a recipe, it looks too hard or strange ingredients but my goal is to push myself and make one or two recipes a month that may be a challenge and this new cookbook club is doing just that. These books are ones I may not have chosen on my own and I'm looking forward to it! Thank you, Giulia!

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I love your new concept! The mention of the prosecco cocktail with strawberries and balsamic vinegar has me planning a trip to my local bookstore! :-) And the sage amd orange chicken will be on the menu this weekend. Grazie!

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Which recipe to make first! Thank you...so many great ideas

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LOVE this cookbook!

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