This book is a product of 2020, the year we all truly understood the importance of families to our lives, and how we are all connected to the world.

Mattia’s Nonna inspired me to write this book: Assunta is a very genuine and funny woman who loves to cook, and she shares whatever she knows without a filter and without hiding anything.

There are many people like Assunta throughout Italy, carrying priceless generational knowledge of food and cooking, and as I researched this book, these families shared their recipes and kitchen secrets with me. You will see their names and sometimes pictures of these families throughout the book.

The result is one of the most authentic cookbooks you will find. It’s not just one of the best home cooking collections ever documented, but a collection of family recipes and secrets from people just like you and me: Nonnas, mammas, and regular people with a love of food and cooking.

This book continues the journey I started in my previous book, Cooking With Lucas, which features 76 recipes based on my own education and experience.

This book features all-new recipes, with no duplication from Cooking With Lucas, so you can feel confident that the two books together will give you a deep, wide and thorough understanding of traditional Italian home cooking.

I have tried to make simple and accessible, and to create a cookbook that transports you into the very heart of the Italian home.

From our families to yours, buon appetito!