Cookbooks

From the author of Cucina Povera, Giulia Scarpaleggia continues her exploration of the soul of Italian cooking—this time through the vibrant world of vegetables.

Italians have an unrivalled gift for making vegetables the star of the table. With just a squeeze of lemon, a drizzle of olive oil, or a scattering of herbs, they transform the simplest produce into deeply satisfying dishes. This instinctive approach to cooking—rooted in cucina povera, Italy’s tradition of resourceful, seasonal home cooking—turns everyday ingredients into nourishing, flavourful meals.

In this book, Giulia Scarpaleggia celebrates cucina casalinga, the heartfelt cooking of Italian homes. Her recipes bring together beloved classics such as Eggplant Parmesan, Panzanella Salad, and Sicilian Caponata with regional treasures like Braised Artichokes and Fennel Gratin. Paired with evocative photographs of Italian gardens and countryside life, this is both a feast for the eyes and an invitation to cook with the rhythm of the seasons.

The Italians call it l’arte dell’arrangiarsi, or the “art of making do with what you’ve got.” This centuries-old approach to ingredients and techniques, known as cucina povera, or peasant cooking, reveals the soul of Italian food at its best. It starts with the humblest components—beans and lentils, inexpensive fish and cuts of meat, vegetables from the garden, rice, pasta, leftovers—and through the ingenuity and resourcefulness of the cook, results in unforgettably delicious and satisfying meals.

In 100 recipes, Cucina Povera celebrates the best of this tradition, from the author’s favorite, pappa al pomodoro (aka leftover bread and tomato soup), to Florentine Beef Stew, Nettle and Ricotta Gnudi, and Sicilian Watermelon Pudding.
Soul satisfying, super healthy, budget-friendly, and easy to make, it’s exactly how so many of us want to eat today.

“Cucina povera dishes are immediately recognizable: the use of humble ingredients, seasonal vegetables, and simple cooking techniques, plus a healthy dose of inventiveness. Cooking this way transforms ingredients into hearty meals that are more than the sum of their parts.“
– Giulia Scarpaleggia

Read my blogpost about the long book journey and discover all the behind the scenes.

A completely revised English edition was released in 2024, featuring a new graphic design and previously unpublished recipes. Read more.

Tuscan cooking is made at home, in grocery shops, in the local vegetable gardens and among the stalls of a market. This book is a collection of traditional and seasonal recipes and a guide to the best food markets in Tuscany. You’ll have the chance to explore the most famous and the lesser known areas, from the streets of Florence to those full of charm and mystery of Volterra, from Garfagnana to the wild Lunigiana, from the velvet hills of Val d’Orcia to those covered with vineyards and olive groves in the Chianti area.

You will find the historical markets of San Lorenzo and Sant’Ambrogio in Florence, the weekly markets, so longed for by everyone in small villages and towns, and the organic markets of local producers. There are also the coastal fish markets and the little huts of fruit and vegetables to be found along the road in Maremma.

This book is part of a collection of cookbooks dedicated to a natural to the everyday cuisine.

You’ll learn about biodiversity and seasonality, the differences between sour and sweet fruit, fresh or dried. There are also many recipes divided into sweet and savoury preparations: porridge, salads, roasts, snacks, soups, and cakes.

This cookbook is out-of-print.

The title can be roughly translated into “Cook as a chef with low cost ingredients”. The main theme of the book is the peasant thrift cooking, the recipes of the families who would put on the table a feast from a few ingredients, the dishes of osterias and country inns. It is a cuisine that is never boring, but creative, vital, innovative and traditional at the same time, a style od cooking which has time and organization as main ingredients.
Ultimately it is what I’ve learned with many years of blogging. Appreciate and celebrate the season, buy local food, talk wiht the producers.

I Love Toscana is available in Italian, English, Dutch, Polish and Taiwanese Mandarin.

In this book there is all my family and my love for Tuscany and its products.
There are our family recipes, those of my grandmother with which I grew up, the recipes that mum taught me step by step on our Sunday mornings, those of my great-grandmother, of Aunt Teresa and Aunt Silvana, of Gelsomino and of other relatives and friends.
There is my land, to which I feel to be tied and bound, in which I had the good luck to grow up, that I rediscovered over the years through my blog and the cooking classes. Tuscany is a varied mix of recipes, distinct areas and peculiar characters, herbs, respect for the seasonality of products and cult of the stale bread. There is the Tuscany I love, and I hope that through these recipes and these stories you can fall in love a little bit, too.

This cookbook is out-of-print.

To celebrate this book, Tommaso and I decided to share trough our newsletter some of the recipes belonging to I love Toscana. So, if you are a Letters from Tuscany subscriber, once a week you’ll get a new recipe, part of a serialized Tuscan cookbook over the course of one year, a collection of tested classic Tuscan recipes to add to your cooking repertoire.

With more than 80 recipes, in Italian and in English, divided by season, here you can find the classic recipes of the Tuscan culinary tradition, from tripe to pappa al pomodoro, from fresh pasta to pot roasted rabbit, plus a few dishes born from the desire to play with new ingredients and flavours.

This cookbook is out-of-print.