Big Flavors from Italian America: Family-Style Favorites from Coast to Coast

America’s Test Kitchen diligently digs into red-sauce favorites in this fun and flavorful collection. Suitably for the homey cuisine, many recipes are simple—meatball subs are assembled on store-bought rolls, possibly using jarred tomato sauce, but a helpful sidebar offers tips for selecting the best sauce available. A contextual overview by Cook’s Country editor Tucker Shaw; profiles of figures such as Phil DiGirolamo, who owns a casual fish market and restaurant; and a talk with Basil DeLuca of Philadelphia’s Villa di Roma, who makes 145 meatballs a day, infuse some personality into the somewhat predictable proceedings. Indeed, it’s the regional details that are most intriguing. A chapter on pizza outlines the differences between New York thin-crust, Chicago deep-dish, and unleavened Saint Louis pies. The editors provide clever tips throughout: for pasta alla Norma, zap eggplant in the microwave to dry it before frying, and use slices of tenderloin pounded thin for pork Milanese. The book ends with a section on desserts that includes a recipe for fried zeppole—popular at New York City’s San Gennaro Festival—and rainbow cookies, which are “meant to look like miniature Italian flags” and treated to a chocolate topping. This is an exercise in nostalgia, but a successful one. (Jan.)