The Lost Ravioli Recipes of Hoboken

Categories: Cookbooks , Nonfiction

Take one mildly obsessive food writer who grew up in New Jersey surrounded by sacred mountains of Italian food, especially "the Christmas Ravioli", which requires hours and hours to make by hand.  Author Laura Schenone explores her family's past to find the exact recipe, no small feat since certain members of the family have not been on speaking terms with other members of the family for a couple of decades.  The desire to connect with her culinary heritage is so strong that Schenone travels to the Italian region of Liguria where her great-grandparents were born so that she might learn how to create that ancestral pasta, eloquently described as 'gossamer' when it hits the palate.  The Lost Ravioli Recipes of Hoboken: A Search for Food and Family (2008) not only provides a good read, but a heartfelt look at a small coastal section of Italy and those treasured family recipes as well. 

In addition to her travels, Ms. Schenone did some intensive research on the authentic cuisine of northern Italy.   These related titles, which are included in Schenone's bibliography, are available in the Library's collection:

Bugialli on Pasta by Guiliano Bugialli, 2000

Crazy in the Kitchen: Foods, Feuds, and Forgiveness in an Italian-American Family by Louise DeSalvo, 2004

Enchanted Liguria: A Celebration of the Culture, Lifestyle, and Food of the Italian Riviera by David Downie, 1997

Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan, 1992

Italian Cuisine: A Cultural History by Alberto Capatti and Massimo Montanari, 2003

Recipes from Paradise: Life and Food on the Italian Riviera by Fred Plotkin, 1997