italyMONDO’s Italian Cookbook Series

La dolce vita—the sweet life—often brings to mind images of relaxation and the quiet appreciation of life’s many beautiful moments. It is different for everyone, but for those who have experienced it in La Bell’Italia, it is hard to forget. Perhaps it was an evening stroll as the town church bells echoed through the hills, or the warm Mediterranean sun on your shoulders while enjoying a creamy gelato. In today’s chaotic and hectic world, who couldn’t use a little bit of that it their daily life? As the pace of life moves forward at an ever-quicker pace, more and more people are discovering those little secrets of enjoying moments of everyday life that the Italians have known for generations. La dolce vita comes from slowing down to savor good, fresh foods and sharing time with family and friends. In Italy, cooking is a fundamental (and delicious!) part of la dolce vita. But how can you bring that into your own home?

Personally, I know when I moved to the Amalfi Coast in southern Italy’s Campania region just how much of a challenge it can be learning to cook in another culture. Every day I learned about new recipes and ingredients, but trying to recreate them in my own home was often an adventure. Those beautiful home cooked sauces simmering on the stoves certainly don’t prepare themselves! Never mind the metric scale for measuring everything and the oven marked with Celsius temperatures, what presented the biggest challenge was learning all the new cooking traditions here in the Naples area.

What did I do? Well, after a bit of panicking, I discovered what quickly became my “secret weapon” in the kitchen, the wonderful cookbook Naples at Table: Cooking in Campania by Arthur Schwartz. There it was right in front of me, all the inside tips and tricks for preparing the local specialties. This wonderfully researched cookbook was also fun read, and it taught me about the culinary history here in the region that I now call home. It not only made me feel more comfortable cooking in another culture, but also improved my creativity and approach to cooking. Most importantly, it helped me learn how to bring la dolce vita into my own life and to my own table in Italy.

Living La Dolce Vita (v.)
1—To enjoy the moments of everyday life 2—To slow down to savor good, fresh foods 3—To share time with family and friends

A cookbook at its best is not just a written record of how to prepare dishes. It is also a place to record stories—both family and historical—and shows us that why we eat the way we do is often just as interesting as how it is made. With the increasing popularity of Italian food and the Italian lifestyle, there are now an abundance of books available on subject. From Rachel Ray to Giada De Laurentiis, the shelves of your local bookstore are lined with cookbooks to teach us about Italian cooking.

This is why we at italyMONDO! want to help you find the best and most inspiring cookbooks out there to help you learn more about Italy’s fascinating food culture, history, traditions and regional recipes. Every so often throughout the year, we will be presenting our favorite cookbooks—the ones that really wow us—that we know our readers will really enjoy. Each series will feature book reviews and interviews with the author, but also spotlights on some of our favorite recipes and other selections.

Stop back by next Friday as we begin our first cookbook series with Venerdì Sera – Friday Evening: Creating La Dolce Vita, One Bite at a Time by Michele Carbone. What a perfect way to remind ourselves, as this holiday season whirrs into high gear, about the importance of slowing down, enjoying time with our families and friends, to savor every bite, and, most of all, to remember to bring Italy’s la dolce vita into our lives!

Photo Courtesy of “jenniferrt66” at Flickr