The Talisman of Happiness: The Most Iconic Italian Cookbook of All Time

Two years before Irma Rombauer published The Joy of Cooking in the United States, and two decades before The Silver Spoon was published in Italy, Ada Boni turned more than a decade of experience as a popular food columnist for a women’s magazine into this book, an exhaustive compendium of the recipes defining Italian cooking. It was the first such comprehensive Italian cookbook, and the mother of pretty much all other Italian cookbooks to come.
 
Since its first publication in 1929, this book has gone through many Italian editions—the most recent in 1999—and remains an essential Italian culinary bible. It describes the pleasures of the Italian meal in luscious detail—from antipasti and condimenti to soups, pasta, polenta, and risotto, along with savory tarts (and the tart’s cousin, the calzone), egg dishes sweet and savory, salads, seafood, and meat. Along with being an record of the rich and varied regional culinary traditions of Italy, The Talisman of Happiness passionately states a core Italian belief about food: that we cook and eat not only to sustain the body but to nourish our souls.
 
The book has been a perennial gift for newlyweds, for young people discovering their love of food, and those establishing their first homes. Its recipes are an essential part of the national culinary heritage and an invaluable source for professional chefs and food writers. You can find a copy of Il Talismano in many Italian home kitchens—often one passed from generation to generation—and in the kitchens of Lidia Bastianich, the late Marcella Hazan, and numerous other cooks who cite it for inspiration and reference.