I want to share my latest cookbook, ITALIAN COOKIES: Authentic Recipes and Sweet Stories from Every Region (publication date April 14). The book features 100 recipes for cookies from all over Italy, with basics and flourishes such as pasta frolla (basic butter dough), candied orange peel, homemade jams, and spice mixes. It is filled with sumptuous photographs by Lauren Volo, and whimsical illustrations by Sicilian graphic artist Daniela Bracco.
In short, ITALIAN COOKIES is a grand tour of Italy seen through its bite-sized treats. The book was years in the making, and it took me to towns, cities, and the countryside in all 20 regions of Italy. What I found is that much like Italian food and wine, the cookies of Italy are regional in character, their recipes rooted in the land and the culture, and in local ingredients that tell a story. Butter in the north, olive oil in the south; hazelnuts in Piemontese Baci di Dama and sweet almonds in Sicilian amaretti.
There are elegantly piped cookies and fat, generous biscotti da inzuppo—dunking cookies—and everything in between. There are cookies with histories dating back centuries and cookies whose popularity attracts travelers from all over. I visited historic bakeries and obscure bakeries, interviewing and observing bakers of all stripes. Among them: a biker baker from Scanno, Abruzzo; the patriarch of the famous Amaretti Chiostro di Saronno company; and a gentle neighborhood baker in the heart of Trastevere.
What struck me more than anything, as I worked on this project, is the fact that wherever I went in Italy, whether it was a tiny bakery tucked away in a village or a large, well-known producer, the most important ingredient was this: the human touch. In Italy, cookies are in large part still made by hand: hand-mixed, hand-shaped. It was meeting the people—the bakers and the artisans—who continue to produce these beloved cookies—that made this subject so meaningful to me and worthy of a deep exploration.
