Regional Italian Cookbooks

Italian regional specialties

Section 3 of the Gastronomic Library is dedicated to regional, provincial and territorial cookbooks.
A large part of the Academia Barilla collection is dedicated to regional Italian cuisine. 

Prior to Italian unification at the end of the 19th century, Italy was made up of many individual states.

Each state, city and town had its own gastronomic specialties, many of which were supported by the local Court or ruling family. 

The geography of Italy also had a major impact on the development of regional cuisines.

Italy is made up of coastlines, hills, flatlands and mountains, with its own microclimate, ingredients and gastronomic traditions.  

The Masterpieces

Our collection includes the numerous books written by Luigi Veronelli (1926-2004). Veronelli was the ultimate gastronome and a well-respected connoisseur of Italian products.

In English, on the other hand, you will find cookbooks published by Giuliano Bugialli, an Italian food lover and author of eight important publications, including 52 notebooks on regional Italian cuisine, edited by the Accademia Italiana della Cucina.

A gastronomic tour of the peninsula

In the Gastronomic Library, you can find thousands of books on the cuisines of every region, city or small town in Italy. 

Hidden inside the books, there are descriptions of Italy’s most well known and most obscure dishes and gastronomic traditions.

In the subsection dedicated to Piedmont, for example, you will find L’Inventore della Bagna Caoda, a small book detailing the culinary history of the region from the Stone Age until today, and Sapori di Langa, or “The Flavors of the Langa.”

In order to learn more about the cuisine of Lombardy, we suggest you consult Vecchia Milano in cucina, by Ottorina Perna Bozzi and La cucina milanese by Marco Guarnaschelli Gotti.

Moving East, we arrive in Venice where Massimo Alberini documents the cuisine of the lagoon in l’Antica cucina veneziana. Back on solid ground, or Terra Ferma, there is a series of books that describe the special products of mainland Venice and the Veneto region.

Maria Stelvio writes passionately about the food of Trieste in Cucina triestina, and there is even a book about the cuisine of Carnia, a micro-region in Friuli.

Alessandro Molinari Pradelli, the authoritative and prolific food writer, presents information of Bologna and Emilia Romagna in La cucina bolognese and La cucina dell’Emilia Romagna.

There are over 120 publications dedicated to the cuisine of nearby Parma, capital of the Italian Food Valley.

Pesto e Buridda is the title of a book about the food of Liguria, and two of the region’s signature dishes.

Tuscan food is covered by Paolo Petroni in the Grande libro della cucina Toscana e and Giovanni Righi Parenti describes the gastronomic traditions of the Etruscans in La cucina degli Etruschi. There are also publications about the food of Elba and Maremma, true gastronomic wonderlands in Tuscany. S’l’arola: cent’ann d’m’nestr e pèn..., by Adele Rondini, is a collection of hundreds of regional recipes written in dialect, and translated into Italian. It is a wonderful introduction to the language, folklore, and popular traditions of this part of inland Italy.

Then there are books about both Roman and Neapolitan food and traditions. Some of the standouts include Cucina napoletana by Jeanne Carola Francesconi, the timeless classic A Napoli si mangia così by Vittorio Gleijeses and the elegant Cucina aristocratica napoletana.

The flavorful food of Apulia (or Puglia) is captured in the numerous publications written by Antonio Foscarini, while Giuseppe Coria shares his love for Sicily and Sicilian cuisine in I profumi di Sicilia. Information about Sardinian food can be found in the books of Maria Falchi Fiori.

There are even books about the smaller Italian islands, including I sapori del vento and Cucina eoliana: storie, profumi e ricette afrodisiache delle isole Eolie.

Our culinary library also contains hard to find books, printed by small, local publishing houses. Often these books are a labor of love and written by local historians and excellent authors.

Section 3 is a treasure trove of material about local products and culinary traditions.