By Heart: Recipes to Hold Near and Dear
Shipping calculated at checkout
This is a confident, quietly elegant collection of recipes meant to be cooked at home, not just admired. Trained at the Culinary Institute of America and grounded in her Italian American upbringing, Hailee Catalano writes with the voice of someone who’s worked in restaurants but never lost sight of the joy of home cooking.
The book’s sections range from three crunchy snacks to Friday night dinner menus, with detours for sourdough loaves, quick broths, and fun things between bread. Her recipes are seasonal, sharp, and just a little nostalgic, like Chicago-style braised Italian beef sandwiches; fried squash blossom “mozzarella sticks;” or a mortadella, egg, and cheese (MEC) sandwich.
Desserts lean unfussy and generous: malted milk butter cookies, no-churn cherry vanilla ice cream, figgy tapioca pudding. This is an inviting, usable book that makes a case for learning dishes by heart not just because they’re practical but because they’re worth remembering.
Hardcover. Color photographs throughout.
