Italian Cookies: Authentic Recipes and Sweet Stories from Every Region

We have a soft spots for books which don't oversimplify. And by offering a regional tour of Italian cookie baking, Domenica Marchetti makes an appealing collection of recipes much more fascinating by connecting the cookies to the places they come from.

Some of the cookies here have American cousins brought by immigrants, or show up with reasonable frequency in Italian cookbooks. But what caught our eye were goodies that one needs extensive travel and research to encounter.  Among them:

• Caviadini, rhombus-shaped butter cookies from the Valsassina, a valley in the Alps of Lombardy
• Favette Triestine, colorful rum and almond flour treats from Trieste that look like little fava beans
• Biscotti del pescatore, or fishererman's cookies from Le Marche, packed with almonds, pine nuts, walnuts, and golden raisins to make them high-energy. They also keep well, regardless of whether you're embarking on a sea voyage
• Anginetti, iced orange and anise knots from Campania
• Strazzate maternate, spiced ragged (that's what strazzate means) clods—Marchetti's word—baked at Christmas in Basilicata
  
• Amarettis, the Sardinian version of amaretti, made from freshly ground almonds and given a lilt of lemon

With a source guide for the very few hard-to-find ingredients, a list of noteworthy bakeries in Italy and the US, and  much charming practicality.

Hardcover. Color photographs throughout.