Italian language

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Italian-Language Magazines & Cookbooks

I’ve been a fan of Italian-language food magazines since the 90’s. Of course, I’m in love with Italian food, but my fever for these magazines was originally sparked by airport spending sprees, getting rid of a few leftover lire/euros at the end of an Italy trip. At the airport I’d collect two or three or four Italian food magazines. The pictures alone absorbed my attention for the trip home.

My first love: the magazine “La Cucina Italiana” (there’s an American version, but my heart stays with the Italian one). It’s the most beautifully produced food magazine ever. Like an Architectural Digest of Italian food. I’ve cooked dozens of recipes from these magazines, translating with an Italian-English dictionary by my side. I’ve saved some of these issues for decades.

When I lived in NYC, Rizzoli Bookstore on 57th Street had a back room filled with foreign magazines and newspapers. I’d stop in weekly to look for the new “La Cucina Italiana” or “Sale e Pepe” or the charming small booklets “GuidaCucina,” which gave you weekly menus to cook.

I’ve recently discovered a company that imports foreign magazines and you can subscribe to a couple of Italian food magazines. I just got a subscription to “Sale e Pepe” (Salt & Pepper). Take a look here: MagazineCafeStore

I also have a treasured collection of Italian-language cookbooks (sometimes they are in Italian & English). Each time I visit a region I look for a regional cookbook and dive in to learn new recipes when I get home. Teaching Italian cooking classes gives me more inspiration to bring authentic dishes to my cooking students.

The cookbook, “Liguria in Bocca,” is from a stellar series of regional Italian cookbooks (one for each region, in dialect and in Italian). It was given to me by one of my heroes of Italian cooking, Bianca Cingolani Podesta. I met her in 1995. She was a cousin of my then-husband, Peter, and we visited the family at her pink villa high in the Ligurian hills. Her grandfather had built the lovely villa (Villa Bianca, now available for rental), and she called it her “paradise, and her prison” — why? Because she can never leave. Its beauty tied her to it.

During our month-long stay, I followed her around the kitchen as she cooked the specialties of the region, everything from rabbit to pesto to cherry desserts, and more. It’s when I started my glossary of Italian cooking terms to help me read Italian recipes.

Italian-language cookbooks or magazines give you an insider understanding of Italian cooking sensibilities that you can’t get from interpretations of Italian recipes here in the States. You learn how specific ingredients are really important — how they are used — and that there is, I want to say “restraint” —when cooking simple dishes to perfection. The Italian-American trope of “abbondanza” is not necessarily connected to authentic Italian cooking. Abbondanza, yes, in the sense of generosity of variety, but not in spilling-over-filled dishes, or extra extra cheese, or over-saucing pasta dishes.

I hope you, too, will take the adventure to discover Italian food periodicals or cookbooks. Just a bit of Italian vocabulary will give you a beautiful sense of authenticity. The publications are little gems you’ll want to safeguard and keep.

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Punt e Mes: A Sip Transports You to Italy

Punt e Mes

Punt e Mes

When I first discovered Punt e Mes I felt like I’d been initiated into a secret club. It was in the 80’s. I was taking an Italian language class (one of the many I’ve taken over the course of too-many-to-mention years).  There were just 5 of us around our teacher’s dining room table delving into Italian in a conversational, relaxed and fun way.

Bretta Bracali was our teacher. She was a stunningly beautiful woman with a sharp Italian-Roman style. She taught with enthusiasm and class. And we all loved her, which helped us learn. I was living in NYC at the time and Bretta’s apartment was in the world-class Ansonia “Hotel” on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The building is impressively ornate and huge. It always felt like a privilege just to have someone to visit there (later my tax accountant had offices there, too).

About The Ansonia

Bretta was on one of the highest floors. She had porthole-sized windows that were near the floor. If you leaned down and peeked out you’d see Broadway stretching out with its army of taxis.

One night she brought out a few small glasses and a bottle of Punt e Mes. No one had ever heard of it and I believe she had just brought it back from Italy. She didn’t describe it or say much about it, just gave us all some to taste as we struggled through speaking and understanding Italian.

I understood the Italian of Punt e Mes right away. The drink, on some rocks and maybe with a lemon twist, tastes like Italy. It’s a fortified wine, a vermouth, but it’s filled with subtle essences that are a little bitter and little floral and a little tart. If I want to feel like I’m in the atmosphere of a Roman street or an Umbrian hilltown or any number of quintessential Italian locations, I drink a little Punt e Mes.

I always remember one of Bretta’s language teaching points. To demonstrate how to pronounce a double consonant in Italian, she took your hand and pulled as you hung on. She’d say: “spaghet-ti.” And let your hand go between the two “t’s” (like pulling taffy together that just suddenly broke) …you got the idea of pronouncing both “t’s.”

Writing about her made me look her up on Google. She’s still teaching Italian. Here’s her website:

Bretta Bracali’s Italian Lessons

Punt e Mes

Punt e Mes