OP: Recipes and Memories

GT Publishing, 1998. Hardcover. Very Good in Very Good jacket. First printing.

A rabidly admired film actor and a woman who once proclaimed, “everything I have I owe to spaghetti,” Sophia Loren (1934– ) has always been passionate about cooking, and is heavily committed to sharing that love with her public. 

Stripped of any notions of celebrity and reflecting on her upbringing during WWII, Recipes & Memories (1998), Loren’s second cookbook, takes a very personal approach to the cooking she enjoyed with her family growing up.

Minestrone, polenta, carciofi alla Giudia (Roman-Jewish-style fried artichokes), salt cod and cauliflower salad, and rabbit cooked with herbs speak to the humble, mostly simple, soul-gratifying cooking Italians do so well. 

With color photography of the dishes and old family photographs throughout, the book transcends the celebrity cookbook genre, better representing the reminiscences of an accomplished actor looking back on a life well-lived. Heartwarming and sweet.

Our copy is a Very Good first printing, the jacket bearing most of the evidence of long shelving—moderate scuffing and rippling.