A hardcover regional cookbook that treats Italy as twenty distinct kitchens instead of one. Chapters move region by region, and each opens with a short introduction to the local ingredients and dishes before turning to recipes for antipasti, primi, main courses, sides, and desserts. The cover is linen-textured gray with a red spoon, and the pages inside are given over to full-page photography and generous margins.
The recipes come from the Silver Spoon kitchen, the editorial team behind Il Cucchiaio d'Argento, the Italian home-cooking reference first published in 1950 by the design magazine Domus. This volume reorganizes that tradition by geography, so a plate of trofie al pesto sits in Liguria's landscape and Puglia's fish markets and 'nduja fileja get a chapter of their own. The styling is warm and a little rumpled, with food shot on linen, tile, and worn wood.
Keep it in the kitchen and cook from it on a Sunday, or leave it on a coffee table for reading and trip planning. It suits anyone who picks a destination by what is on the menu, and it makes a considered gift for a cook who already owns the classics.