Pasta Grannies: The Official Cookbook: The Secrets of Italy’s Best Home Cooks Kindle Edition

Most of the reviews refer to the youtube channel which is truly a work of archival Italian female cooking history. They are not wrong in their praise. However, I want to let you know that I have made several (not all, not even the majority) of the recipes, and those that I have made are real life, perfect home-cooked food. The ingredients are simple and excellent. Plus, making pasta at home is fun (I confess I use my kitchen aide to roll out the pasta dough because I do not have the skill to hand roll it out. But, regardless, try it, hand rolling or not, it is fun). You should all try Monica's Pasta Basket with Ricotta and Lemon (page 227). I did not have the skill to make the baskets, but made regular raviolis and, along with the sauce recipe, I can honestly I have never had, or made, such an interesting, and at the same, time joyous dish. The ragu recipe on page 158 is also very good.I have purchased many Italian cookbooks which are just to fussy (I am not including Marcella Hazan, those cookbooks are extraordinary). I cannot recommend Pasta Grannies enough. As I work my way through the recipes, if my opinion changes, I will update my review.

I love Pasta Grannies on YouTube, and I really only bought the book because I feel a little guilty about getting such great video content for free and wanted to support Ms. Bennison's work. What a wonderful surprise Pasta Grannies Cookbook turned out to be. The book definitely meets the very high standards set by the video series, and I'm already planning to purchase more copies for holiday gifts. As a professional chef, I've owned hundreds and hundreds of cookbooks over the years, and this one will undoubtedly end up to be one of my most cherished.

After enjoying the many wonderful YouTube segments, I finally received my long awaited copy of this wonderful book! While ostensibly it's a cookbook, when you start reading it, you realized that it's so much more. The love that Vicky pours into it (for more details there's a great article in the New York Times) makes for such an engaging read that it quickly becomes a lot more of a literary experience. The recipes are wonderful as are the Nonne who opened up their kitchens and their lives to all of us. I don't know about the rest of the readers but if Vicky hadn't included the fantastic Letizia, I'd have hunted her down and made her eat a can of over processed plonk that passes for spaghetti for that omission! I'm already plotting cooking as many of the sugi as my somewhat dubious cooking skills can handle...MANY thanks to Vicky, her team and the Nonne who made this gem possible - Grazie!

The cookbook finally arrived today. Excitedly, I opened it, knowing I would read through it tonight when I have time. While the recipes look good, there was a huge missed opportunity on the photography. Really poor quality and in many cases blurry. When people can take superb photos on their phones, there is really no excuse for the unfortunate photography portrayed in this cookbook. Photos are essential, I feel, as a compelling tool to make one want to recreate a recipe. The photography in this book fails in that regard. Especially for a $21 book. Because of the poor photography, I would likely not buy this book to give as a gift as it is far from gift quality.

It had a few good recipes overall The book lacked simple recipes such as measurements for pasta they use daily for all foods such as spaghetti, pizza, penne, and other basics cook on a daily basis. There’s to many written stories telling of their lives not enough basic recipes. Don’t recommend the book total disappointment

I have been waiting for the release of this book forever! It arrived today and I was instantly back in Italy just skimming the pages of the beautiful nonnas that make up the book! Cannot wait to try some of these pasta dishes - thank you to the author for preserving the traditions of generations of Italian grandmothers. Grazie!!!!

I really wanted to like this item and was excited to receive it. However when I opened the box that it was shipped in the book appeared to have been simply tossed in with a number of other things that I ordered and was in poor shape. Regardless of this I still was going to keep it but when I started looking at the recipes I realized that the book has two major fault at least for me. The first fault is that the print size is extremely small. Accordingly it is difficult to read. Secondly the recipe instructions are written in large blocks of steps and are completely on numbered making the directions difficult to follow as you work. It is unfortunate but I'm returning this items for these reasons. It was difficult to even tell whether the recipes are any good because of the way the directions were presented and the tiny print size.

This book is so great for anyone - especially those with italian roots, looking to up their cooking skills!! I have always followed the pasta grannies youtube channel and have been cooking for 20+ years. This book is awesome because it details the background of each type of pasta, provides a recipe (includes measurements in grams, cups, and oz. (very helpful because a lot of European cookbooks are only in grams), and in depth instructions. It's very visibly pleasing and so fantastic to have all these recipes continue to be passed down from generation to generation. There are so many different types of pasta to choose from and many are very easy. There's also great detailed instructions on how to make pasta from scratch, which is a fun challenge. I hope that I become more efficient and I am able to learn these recipes and pass them on to my grand children!

The book is not self contained. It refers to the youtube channel for instructions on how to shape pasta, making me wonder why I bought the book in the first place instead of just watching the youtube videos. the book is full of vague descriptions e.g. roll to the the thickness of your mobile phone charger (what does this mean? why not state this in mm?) or stitch the sides together, but check out the youtube channel to see how to do it.The book does not show clear pictures of finished dishes or pasta pieces in all cases so it is sometimes hard to know even what the result should be. This is not because of lack of space for pictures. Instead the authors decided to put pictures of drying laundry and other random pictures in the book. I was really hoping for a clear picture of the dish, the finished pasta piece, and a few pictures of the steps to make it. I've eaten trofie and I still wasn't sure what it should like from the pictures in the book.The original idea is great - collect the recipes from older Italian ladies that have been making them for years. I enjoyed reading their stories. This is the only reason for two stars instead of one.In summary, just watch the youtube videos and skip the book.

This is such a down to earth book, showing both simply how to make pasta and to combine with the delicious recipes for sauces from these expert and age old connoisseurs of Italian cooking.I'm going to work my way through and attempt to recreate some of these time honoured recipes.This is a fantastic cook book which puts the food and the people who inspire it first, rather than lots of glossy pictures of celebrity chefs..Buy it!

Amazing recipes and particularly stories and it looks amazing but oh my days, there's typos and formatting errors and missing sections galore and it's just such a shame. It doesn't inspire confidence to try the recipes in case of mistakes. :(

I bought this book after watching the Youtube channel, and it does not disappoint! For those who are interested in the regional diversity of pasta, as well as making your own, this book contains a good collection of recipes suitable for everyday meal and dinner parties. There is a good selection of vegetarian ones as well as meat/seafood ones to choose from. It is also interesting to see how the dough recipe varies through different regions. It is a beautiful, down to earth book, that is practical for everyday use, yet contains a wealth of heritage that one day could be lost. I'm very please with my latest additional to my collection of pasta books, and it's a new favourite!

My own Grandmothers were brilliant cooks, perhaps with having many children between the (one with 11 the other with 13 not to mention the grandchildren and great grandchildren). One Grandmother was German the other English. When I see these ladies and gentlemen and have the privilege of seeing them cook in their own kitchens I see my own Grandparents. The book is complimented with Facebook and YouTube Channels so you can watch, read and feel the cooking experience (especially when they involve children). I am so looking forward to Pasta Grannies 2.