The Best Italian Cookbooks

Basically everyone loves Italian food. It doesn’t matter what country or city you live in, the chances are fairly high that you’ve enjoyed a plate of pasta or eaten a decent pizza sometime in the last year. Our collection of Mob’s Best Italian Dishes isn’t one of our most popular by accident. The small number of readily-available ingredients that are typically used in Italian cooking make it an approachable cuisine that’s incredibly satisfying to eat while not being particularly hard to make. At least, that’s until you start looking at it closely.

Italian cuisine might be about simplicity and “cucina povera” but it’s also one that relies a lot on technique and know-how to ensure that you’re simmering your sauce just so and making sure your pasta is the right level of doneness. That sort of thing might come naturally to an Italian nonna but if you, like me, need a bit of guidance on how to make the perfect ragù or a toothsome risotto then it’s worth seeking out some of the many brilliant Italian cookbooks out there.

We’ve already rounded up the best barbecue cookbooks, the best baking cookbooks, and the best vegetarian cookbooks about. So it was only fair that we got around to rounding up some of the best Italian cookbooks, too.

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Award-winning food writer Rachel Roddy has knocked it out of the park with their latest cookbook. An A-Z of Pasta is an exhaustive and entertaining collection of over 120 essential pasta and sauce recipes. There are lots of lovely essays littered throughout and this is the ideal cookbook to help you know your ziti from your scialatielli.

Marcella Hazan is an undeniable legend of the game and her cookbook, The Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking, is just as legendary as she is. It’s filled with hundreds of recipes from one of the greatest Italian cookery writers the world has ever seen. It’s a must-have for novices and experts alike. Everyone’s got a little something to learn from Marcella. Cook every single dish in this book and you’ll be as well versed in Italian cooking as a native of the country.

Saving up your money to afford a meal at the River Cafe will take some time. Buying River Cafe 30, on the other hand, will take you a lot less time. The 30 of the title commemorate the restaurant’s 30th anniversary and, featuring over 120 simple modern Italian recipes, this cookbook is an essential purchase for any dedicated pasta lover. A beautiful book to have on your shelves.

Anna Del Conte’s Italian Kitchen is a great jumping-off point into the rich and varied cuisine of Italy. Del Conte has a reputation as one of the greats for a reason and her simple, fuss-free approach to this cookbook makes it super friendly to leaf through. Just about every dish sounds like something you’d want to have for dinner and giving someone this as a gift is a surefire way to guarantee that they’ll be cooking you some really top tucker.

Originally published in 1950, The Silver Spoon is not a new Italian cookbook by any stretch of the imagination. Yet, despite its age, it’s still one of the best Italian cookbooks about. Alberto Capatti’s recipes read just as fresh today as they did the day they were written. It’s also absolutely huge. This whopper is filled with over 2,000 recipes. A proper doorstop of a text that’ll teach you everything you need to know about making a mean bowl of pasta.

Let’s cut the bullshit, shall we? Your love of pasta is one of the main reasons why you’re reading this list of the best Italian cookbooks. And when it comes to the best cookbooks on making pasta, Pasta: A Cookbook is at the top of the mountain. Missy Robbins’ cookbook is a modern, stylish entry into the oeuvre and features multiple illustrated step-by-step recipes for handmaking various different pasta shapes and dishes.

Trullo is an excellent little restaurant in London and its seminal, self-titled cookbook (also called Trullo – duh) has earned its place on our list of the Best Restaurant Cookbooks as well as this list of the best Italian cookbooks. The recipes are serious and perhaps a little too complicated for beginners but if you’re a confident cook looking to become better in the kitchen, then this is a great book to start splattering with pomodoro.

Giorgio Locatelli’s Made In Italy is an excellent Italian cookbook but it’s the stories written by Locatelli himself that elevate this to the upper echelons of the ‘Food & Drink’ section of your local bookstore. A real sense of personality and flair comes through in the writing and it’s hard not to be enamoured by Locatelli’s failsafe recipes for everything from risotto to gelato.

Stanley Tucci is a man who knows his way around a kitchen just as well as he knows his way around a film set. The Tucci Cookbook is his attempt at throwing his ring into the Italian cookbook hat and it’s a rather lovely hat indeed. It’s got nearly 200 irresistible recipes tucked into its glossy pages. There’s simple pasta recipes but also some more audacious recipes like fruity roast duck with fresh figs. All of them are delicious.

Because Italian food is often so simple, the technique used is one of the most important aspects of taking a dish from good to great. Lidia's Mastering the Art of Italian Cuisine is a cookbook that’s positioned itself as the definitive guide to Italian cooking. And it’s hard to argue otherwise. There’s over 400 recipes in this excellent Italian cookbook and nearly every single one of them is worthy of your time and effort. Want the picture-perfect recipe for risotto alla milanese? Look no further.