Great title for a cookbook
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The Talisman of Happiness.
As a child growing up in Italy, Lidia Bastianich recalls seeing one particular cookbook in just about everyone’s kitchen. It was called “The Talisman of Happiness” and it was often given as a wedding present to couples starting new lives together.
“It has all the basic recipes. And it says the basic thing — that food is a connector, that food is happiness,” she says.
The book by Ada Boni — its Italian title is “Il Talismano della Felicita” — was first published in 1929, and became a go-to place to find the recipe for spaghetti carbonara or pork galantine. Its simplicity and accessibility got it compared to “The Joy of Cooking,” but it predated Irma S. Rombauer’s iconic work.
This fall, the first English edition of the complete work — with nearly 1,700 recipes — arrives on shelves, thanks to years of dogged pursuit by Voracious publisher Michael Szczerban.
https://apnews.com/article/talisman-happiness-italy-cookbook-7ca5a58b59699f986af6026e58923c11
It gets mixed reviews on Amazon as far as the recipes are concerned but people seemed to enjoy reading it to learn about Italian culinary history. Might be worth checking out of the library just to read it.
