Every family has a kitchen at the centre of it. Ours was hers. Mangia! Mangia! gathers the dishes Nonna Antonietta made for us, recorded so they can be made again by her children, grandchildren and everyone who ever sat at her table.

I remember my Nonna most in the kitchen. She never measured a thing, she just knew. A little more flour, another handful, a few more minutes. I would watch her hands work and somehow everything always came together perfectly. Her kitchen was where we gathered, where there was always enough food, always another place at the table, and always room for one more. Some of my most precious memories are of the meals we prepared together and the traditions she passed down to me without either of us realizing just how much they would one day mean. When she passed away, she left me her handwritten recipe book, but what she really left me was so much more. She left me a piece of herself, and every time I make one of her recipes, I feel like I am back in her kitchen again. Mangia! Mangia! is my way of keeping those memories alive and carrying her love, her food, and our family traditions forward for generations to come.

"Mangia, mangia!"