This is a nice cookbook filled with lots of recipes that look like real Italian food. There is a wide variety of recipes that cover everything from appetizers and main courses to desserts and cookies. Some of the recipes that really stood out to me were pasta e fagioli soup, Sicilian pizza, Italian bundt cake, and soft lemon cookies with limoncello glaze. Lots of pictures are included and the directions look easy to follow. If you enjoy Italian cooking I think you will really enjoy this holiday cookbook.

I love the layout of this book, it is full of recipes I can't wait to try and I hope that when I recreate them they look and taste as good as they do in print. Each occasion has a set of perfect recipes so you'll be spoilt for choice. I love the pictures and little stories from other Nonna's as they give the book more of a personal touch. A must for anyone who loves Italian dishes.

This is a great tool for anyone interested in Italian cooking. This book contains many vibrant pictures and personal stories and touches. It's also nicely separated by holiday. I love that soft Easter Bread with it's color Easter eggs that made an appearance here. The Butternut Squash Lasagna sounded amazing as well. I'll be making the Sicilian Potato Pie. Seems like a great fall dish. Some cookbooks can be intimidating with great pictures but lacking in ease. This one is relatable and doable.

I received an arc in exchange for an honest review.

I love Nonna's cookbooks. Nonna is back in the kitchen with Rossella Rago and other Italian Grandmothers creating this wonderful book of Italian recipes from every region in Italy. Being Italian, myself, I find it hard to find a good authentic Italian Cookbook and Nonna knows how to do it right.

This is a wonderful and fun collection of Italian holiday recipes including New Years, Valentines Day, Carnevale, Good Friday, Easter Sunday, Little Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Saints Days recipes.

Recipes from Sicilian Pizza, Spaghetti in Wine sauce, Cream puffs with chocolate sauce, Oven fried chickpeas, Stuffed Zucchini, Baccala Pie, soft Easter bread, Lemon Drop Cookies, Genovese-Style Focaccia with onions and Pumpkin Tiramisu. Authentic Italian recipes that will have everyone begging for more.

It seems like every year that I go to holiday events that someone else brings the same potluck item, so I was looking for a cookbook with unique recipes to try this year. This cookbook has some amazing looking things that I cannot wait to make!

You have no idea how excited I am to have this cookbook!  I normally review healthy vegan or plant-based cookbooks and this is not that.  But I am Italian and I could relate so well to Rosella Rago's intro, getting all the family together, the tablecloths didn't have to match, you could eat on paper plates, all that mattered was that the family was together and the family ate the family recipes.

I do eat healthy, but I still make my family's marinara and we have that for dinner several times a month.  The one big reason why I don't think I will ever be 100% vegan: I will not give up The Feast of the Seven Fishes on Christmas Eve.  I may only eat fish a few times during the year so that my body can digest it on Christmas Eve, but I want to be the Nonna one day and have my grandchildren come to my house for the family recipes of scungilli salad and baccala, because that is how I keep my Nonna alive.  One bite of those foods and it's like she's sitting next to me again!  (I've been known to break down in tears at the smell of certain Italian food cooking because the good memories of a time long gone come rushing back).

I was THRILLED to find vegan recipes like Savory Scallion Pie, Genovese-Style Focaccia with Onions, Fritters with Black Olives and Escarole Pie.

The Lamb and Potatoes recipe looks identical to what my Nonna used to make.  I won't eat lamb, but I also wouldn't be surprised if my husband made this one Sunday.

And if you have ever wanted the best Easter dish ever - there is a recipe for Pizza Rustica in here (some call it Pizza Chiena "stuffed pizza) but our family, and Rosella Rago's family, always called it Pizza Rustica.

The photo of the Soft Easter Bread brought back so many memories!

The Thanksgiving stuffing sounds just like my Nonna's with rice and sausage and ground beef.  

And Cardoons!  I had forgotten all about cardoons and my family also went to Arthur Avenue to get those and my Nonna used a similar recipe!

I actually got tears in my eyes about the Egg Drop Chicken Soup--my Nonna used to make it for me all year.  She thought I needed more protein and it was nourishing.

I have a new list of recipes to try and am looking forward to surprising my mother with some different cookies this Christmas!!

Interesting book - lots of receipes I'd never heard of, but would now like to try! I like how the receipes have been split by holiday rather than the usual 'courses'. The photos are a nice touch too

This cookbook is great! It's like having an Italian grandmother to teach you recipes, without the bloodline! Thanks for the opportunity to cook so many traditional Italian dishes.

Cooking with Nonna: The Holiday Cookbook by Rossella Rago
A Collection of over 100 Holiday Recipes from Italian Grandmothers

Some of the recipes used for the main holidays of the year are listed along with a few of those for some of the Saints’ Days and other celebrations. I was interested in seeing new-to-me recipes that tantalized my taste buds and had me wanting to try them out in the future. I have seen raisins in savory dishes in some other countries’ cuisines but had not thought of adding them to Italian dishes. I was curious about the double crusted savory pies and would like to try a few in the future. Add in comments and reminiscences from a variety of Nonnas, tips with some of the recipes and interesting photos and you have a delightful book to read and refer to during the holidays or any time of the year. I do not have Italian blood BUT would love to try some of the recipes in this book and serve them to my friends at some point in the near future.

Looking through the index I realized that if I were to want to find say a list of salads or a specific vegetable and all of the recipes it would be found in it would be difficult to do so. The index lists the recipes by name but not by ingredient. Another interesting aside is that there are not as many fresh vegetable dishes (salads) as there are cooked, layered, baked or fried ones. There are many bread and sweet recipes and perhaps that has to do with the topic of holidays more than anything else. I am interested in what the first book out by this author might have and may see if I can find it in the future.

Did I enjoy this book? Yes
Would I try any of the recipes in this book? I believe I would
Which recipes intrigued me most? Perhaps the double crust savory pies

Thank you to Quarto Publishing Group-Race Point Publishing for the ARC – This is my honest review.

4 Stars

My review has been posted to my blog & Goodreads.

Review has also been tweeted as usual.

Thank you! :c)

If anyone still wonders why Italians are world-renowned chefs, this cookbook will answer your questions. The 100 recipes read like food porn: luscious desserts, rich pastas, hearty meat and fish dishes. The beautiful photography ably illustrates how truly delicious the offerings truly can be. SO mesmerizing. Don't read if you are hungry- you will run for the kitchen!!

This book has made me hungry. Every page is full of homely Italian recipes many which remind me of my travels in Italy.
I loved the little interludes of stories from
Nonna’s about their family and traditions.
This book screams family and love and that’s how I felt about every recipe in there and I’m already planning to try out the butternut squash lasagne very soon.

Cooking with Nonna: The Holiday Cookbook has holiday recipes that range from Christmas to New Year's Day along with a section for Saint Days and Celebrations. Throughout the cookbook you will find plenty of color photos, and stories telling about the cooks and their recipes. You will also learn about how the holidays are celebrated thanks to the explanations given with the recipes.. This is a friendly, folksy cookbook that will warm your soul and happily fill your tummy.

Some of the recipes you'll find include:

Cream Puffs with Chocolate Sauce
Tuna Pie with Tomatoes and Parsley
Soft Easter Bread
Italian Christmas Bread
Pandoro Christmas Tree Cake with Limoncella Cream
Champagne and Strawberry Mimosa Cake
Sweet Coal (a candy that looks like coal and served during Epiphany)
Saint Joeseph's Day Minestrone
Seven Fishes Seafood Salad

Recommend.

Review written after downloading a galley from NetGalley.

I liked this cookbook quite a lot. It's very family oriented and the stories throughout it were lovely to read. There was also a number of recipes I've never come across before.that I would certainly like to attempt as they sounded both delicious and easy to make. However, that's not to say more advanced cooks won't find anything in here to challenge and stretch their culinary skills to the limit.

Perfect for anyone wanting to try something different for next family occasion.

This was a ARC in exchange for a honest review. With thanks to Netgalley and Race Point Publishing.

Cooking with Nonna: The Holiday Cookbook is a great selection of recipes. It features some wonderful stories and pictures.

I'm Italian and was curious to see how Italian cooking can be as seen by a nonna.
It was interesting and I liked to read the stories as well as looking at the different recipes.
They can be slightly different but there are some brilliant ideas I'd like to try.
Recommended!
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC

I liked the format of the book. Having it arranged by holiday , and interspersed with family stories was great. There were definitely a bunch of recipes that caught my eye, especially for the sweets! My only complaint is that I would have liked more pictures of the food!

I really liked this book. It is really well put together. The combination of family, love and food is wonderful. It was great to find out about a lot of traditional dishes I had not heard of before. I am looking forward to trying some of the recipes in this book. I really like the idea of citrus turkey so that might be the first on my list.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

I liked this cookbook, as it contained a lot of recipes I did not know yet and definitely want to try. Besides that, you can never go wrong with recipes grandmothers use as they have a lot if experience. I liked the general layout and the descriptions were easy to understand but I missed more pictures of all that great italian holiday food.