The 2025 Italian Cookbook Book Guide
By Ian MacAllen
Friday, December 12th, 2025 | 894 views

We took a look back at the Italian, Italian American, and Italian-ish cookbooks from the past year.


We took a look back at the Italian, Italian American, and Italian-ish cookbooks from the past year.

Cookbook author, food journalist, and tour guide Katie Parla launched her latest volume, Rome, focusing on the food and history of the eternal city. We discussed creating the book, Rome’s culinary history, and more.

Historian Luca Cesari is an expert on Italian food. In his new book, The History of Pizza, he explores the origins of this iconic Neapolitan dish, looks at the migration of pizza to the United States, and the evolution of the dish from working-class flatbread into global sensation. I caught up with him earlier this month to talk about the book.

Summer tastes like Italian Ice. The sweet cold treat was introduced to American cities with Italian immigrant enclaves in the early 20th century. Those early vendors launched the Italian Ice industry from pushcarts selling penny licks before eventually growing a multi-million dollar industry.

The feast of San Gennaro once hosted competitive eating contests for cannoli, meatballs, pizza, and zeppole, but then in 2023 all that changed. Here’s a look back at the history eating contests at the Feast.
Marcella Hazan changed the way Americans cooked and thought about Italian cuisine. Now filmmaker Peter Miller has made a documentary about her life. We had a chance to speak to him about the making of the film, Marcella’s philosophy, and cooking Italian food.

The French have never heard of it. Neither have most Italians. Today, it’s a widely eaten Italian American staple, an icon of wedding buffets for decades. So where did this buttery, lemony chicken come from?

Italians settling in the Twin Cities developed a unique sandwich with spicy sausage known today by a slur for people of Italian heritage.

Cookbooks featuring Italian cuisine were as popular as ever in 2024. There were a few trends that emerged.
Spicy, creamy, and bright green, Pesto Genovese has become synonymous with modern Italian cuisine, particularly in the United States. But that wasn’t always the case…