Launch price — save $110 · ends in --h --m --s

La Cucina di Lucia

Lucia in her kitchen

Lucia, in her own kitchen

The things she did with her hands. Finally written down.

“Quanto basta” — as much as is enough. The only measure my grandmother ever gave me.

The two-finger feel of the dough. The garlic taken off the heat one moment before it turns. The pan of water nobody ever told you was an ingredient. That knowing was never written down, and when the last hands that hold it are gone it is gone — unless somebody sets it down now.

649 pages137 recipes68 numbered tricks

What you get the moment you download

  • Lucia’s Cookbook — 649 pages, 137 recipes, 68 numbered tricks, the reason under every step
  • Il Ricettario — every recipe on its own printable card for the stove
  • The Large-Print Edition — the whole book in big, easy type
  • The Almanac of Putting By and the Seasonal Kitchen Calendar
  • The Quanto Basta Card and Write Down Your Own Nonna’s keepsake pages

Instant download · read it on your phone, tablet or computer · one payment, no subscription, yours forever

Look inside the book See every recipe
I Start here

Why Italian recipes are so short, and still go wrong.

Cacio e pepe is three things. Aglio e olio is three things and one of them is water. Nothing is hidden, and yet the gap between my grandmother's plate and the same recipe cooked at home was enormous. It took me years to work out where that gap lives: she was never cooking a recipe. She was cooking a pan. Here is one of the sixty things she did without knowing she did it — the whole page, out of the book, free.

IL TRUCCO · NUMBER TEN
10

One, ten, a hundred.

One litre of water. Ten grams of salt. One hundred grams of pasta. Scale it as you like and it never goes wrong.

So for four people eating a proper plateful: four hundred grams of pasta, four litres of water, forty grams of salt. Forty grams sounds alarming written down. Weigh it once and look at it — it is about two and a half tablespoons — and remember you are not eating it. Most of it goes down the drain with the water. What reaches the plate is pasta seasoned evenly through its whole thickness, which is the only way pasta can be seasoned at all. You cannot salt it afterwards: the outside tastes salty and the inside tastes of nothing.

Salt the water once it boils, never before. Then wait for it to come back to the boil before the pasta goes in.

Why it works: pasta absorbs water as it cooks, so it absorbs whatever is dissolved in that water. One per cent is the concentration at which pasta tastes seasoned without tasting salty. That is why it is the number that survived.

That is page 85. There are sixty-seven more like it, and a recipe on either side of every one.

Lucia rolling fresh pasta by hand

Fresh pasta, rolled by hand — the way it was always done.

II Look inside

Real pages from the real book.

This is exactly what opens on your phone while you cook. The type is set big on purpose, and under every single step there is a line in italic telling you why that step is done that way.

The contents page
The contents. Twenty-eight chapters in nine parts, so you can find a thing at six o'clock on a Tuesday.
A numbered trick page
One of the sixty-eight tricks. Each gets its own page, numbered, so you can go straight to it.
A recipe opening with ingredients
Every recipe opens the same way: serves, time, pan size, then the measures in cups and in grams.
Recipe steps with the reason under each
The steps, with the reason set underneath each one. This is the part that means you stop needing the page.
The if-it-goes-wrong page
Se va storto — if it goes wrong. After every dish, honestly, so a bad pan gets saved instead of binned.
The ossobuco recipe
The Sunday dishes too: ossobuco, arista, hunter’s chicken, each laid out the same careful way.
A week of seasonal dinners with its shopping list
Four seasonal weeks of dinners, each with its own shopping list, so the thinking is done for you.

Swipe to see more pages

❦ On the table

What a Tuesday looks like.

Not restaurant food — the real dishes, made in a home kitchen, the way Lucia makes them. Six of the ones people cook first.

Carbonara
Carbonarano cream, never scrambled — chapter 6
Cacio e pepe
Cacio e Pepetwo things and one rule about heat — chapter 14
Ragù on tagliatelle
Ragù alla Bolognesethe long one, on fresh tagliatelle — chapter 14
Ribollita
Ribollitayesterday's bread, beans and greens — chapter 9
Focaccia
Focacciacrisp, oily, salted — the bread to bake first — chapter 26
Tiramisù
Tiramisùyesterday's coffee, no cooking — chapter 27
III What's inside

Nine parts. Twenty-eight chapters. One hundred thirty-seven recipes. Sixty-eight tricks, numbered.

Set down in the order you would actually cook them — the measured starting point first, the by-feel knowing beside it.

IChapters 1–10

I Trucchi — The Tricks

The part people write to me about. Everything she did without knowing she did it.

  • The pasta water rule that costs nothing and changes everything
  • Why your sauce slides off, and the thirty seconds that fix it
  • The soffritto ratio, and what happens when you rush it
  • Feeding six from a nearly empty house, the old way
  • Stale bread as an ingredient — eight dishes built on it
  • Rinds, stalks and fronds: nothing thrown away
IIChapters 11–16

La Pasta

By hand and from the packet, and the nine sauces everything else leans on.

  • Egg pasta described by feel, not by minutes
  • Semolina and water: the cheapest pasta, the most impressive
  • Carbonara without cream and without scrambling it
  • Ragù north and south, and how long each really needs
  • Filled pasta that does not burst in the pot
  • Lasagne, and a béchamel that will not break
IIIChapters 17–20

Riso, Legumi e Minestre

The slow, cheap, filling middle of the Italian week.

  • Risotto: why the ladle rhythm exists and what it does
  • Polenta soft, set, grilled and fried
  • Beans and chickpeas, and when to salt them
  • The cooking liquid you were about to pour away
  • Minestrone by season — four different soups
  • Broth that actually tastes of something
IVChapters 21–22

L'Orto e la Dispensa

Vegetables the Italian way, and putting the summer by for February.

  • Why Italian vegetables taste better: fewer things, longer
  • Parmigiana that is not watery — the step everyone skips
  • Caponata, carciofi and the bitter greens
  • Sott'olio and sott'aceto, done safely
  • Passata in August for the middle of winter
  • Drying and salting, written plainly
VChapters 23–28

La Tavola

Meat, fish, bread, sweets, and the Sunday table that holds a family together.

  • The expensive cut is usually the wrong cut
  • Brasato, ossobuco and the long slow cooks
  • Bread and focaccia at home, no special equipment
  • Tiramisù, crostata and the sweets made from what is already in
  • Il pranzo della domenica, timed start to finish
  • Four weeks of dinners, one shopping list each

❦ every recipe in the book ❦

All 137 of them, in the order you’ll find them.

Every one has measures in cups and grams, numbered steps with the reason under each, how to tell when it’s ready, and what to do if it goes wrong.

Show all 137 recipes, part by part

Part One · How a Nonna Cooks (8)

1. Toasted Breadcrumbs Pangrattato

2. Chilli Oil Olio santo

3. Green Sauce Salsa verde

4. Lemon, Garlic and Parsley Gremolata

5. Bruschetta Bruschetta al pomodoro

6. White Beans with Oil and Sage Fagioli all’olio

7. Garlic Bread with New Oil Fettunta

8. Raw Vegetables Dipped in Oil Pinzimonio

Part Two · I Trucchi (21)

9. Spaghetti with Garlic, Oil and Chilli Spaghetti aglio, olio e peperoncino

10. Cacio e Pepe

11. Carbonara Spaghetti alla carbonara

12. Tomato Sauce, the Twenty-Minute One Sugo di pomodoro

13. Lemon Spaghetti Spaghetti al limone

14. Pasta with Raw Tomatoes Pasta al pomodoro crudo

15. Pasta with a Soffritto Sauce Pasta al soffritto

16. Peas with Onion and Pancetta Piselli alla romana

17. A Batch of Soffritto to Freeze Soffritto da congelare

18. Pasta and Chickpeas Pasta e ceci

19. Pasta and Potatoes Pasta e patate

20. Cooked Water Soup Acquacotta

21. Pasta with Breadcrumbs and Anchovy Pasta con la mollica

22. Bread and Tomato Salad Panzanella

23. Tuscan Bread and Bean Soup Ribollita

24. Tomato and Bread Soup Pappa al pomodoro

25. Bread Dumplings Canederli

26. Broth from Scraps Brodo di scarti

27. Meat Broth Brodo di carne

28. Chicken Broth, and the Chicken Brodo di pollo

29. Pesto of Carrot Tops and Greens Pesto di foglie

Part Three · La Pasta (33)

30. Fresh Egg Tagliatelle Tagliatelle all’uovo

31. Tagliatelle with Butter and Parmesan Tagliatelle al burro e parmigiano

32. Pappardelle with Mushrooms Pappardelle ai funghi

33. Orecchiette Orecchiette — “little ears”

34. Cavatelli

35. Orecchiette with Turnip Tops Orecchiette con le cime di rapa

36. Hand-Rolled Pici with Garlic Tomato Sauce Pici all’aglione

37. Cavatelli with Sausage and Tomato Cavatelli con salsiccia

38. Pasta with Broccoli, Anchovy and Chilli Pasta con i broccoli

39. Pasta with Aubergine, Tomato and Ricotta Salata Pasta alla Norma

40. Angry Penne Penne all’arrabbiata

41. Pasta with Tuna, Capers and Lemon Pasta al tonno

42. Tomato Sauce, the Long One Sugo di pomodoro lungo

43. Amatriciana Bucatini all’amatriciana

44. Gricia Pasta alla gricia

45. Puttanesca Spaghetti alla puttanesca

46. Ragù alla Bolognese

47. Neapolitan Ragù Ragù napoletano

48. Pesto, in a Mortar and in a Blender Pesto alla genovese

49. Almond and Tomato Pesto Pesto alla trapanese

50. Walnut Sauce Salsa di noci

51. White Ragù Ragù bianco

52. Quick Sausage Sauce Sugo di salsiccia

53. Ricotta and Spinach Ravioli Ravioli di ricotta e spinaci

54. Butter and Sage Burro e salvia

55. Pumpkin Tortelli Tortelli di zucca

56. Pinched Agnolotti with Roast Meat Agnolotti del plin

57. Tortellini in Broth Tortellini in brodo

58. Béchamel Besciamella

59. Lasagne Lasagne al forno

60. Spinach and Ricotta Cannelloni Cannelloni di ricotta e spinaci

61. Neapolitan Baked Pasta Pasta al forno alla napoletana

62. Baked Crêpes with Spinach and Ricotta Crespelle alla fiorentina

Part Four · Riso e Polenta (12)

63. Risotto alla Milanese

64. Mushroom Risotto Risotto ai funghi

65. Pumpkin Risotto Risotto alla zucca

66. Rice and Peas Risi e bisi

67. Lemon Risotto Risotto al limone

68. Rice Balls Arancini

69. Soft Polenta Polenta morbida

70. Polenta with Melted Cheese Polenta concia

71. Grilled and Fried Polenta Polenta alla griglia e fritta

72. Polenta on the Board with Sausage Polenta sulla spianatoia

73. Potato Gnocchi Gnocchi di patate

74. Semolina Gnocchi Roman Style Gnocchi alla romana

Part Five · Legumi e Minestre (15)

75. A Pot of Beans Fagioli in umido

76. Pasta and Beans Pasta e fagioli

77. Lentils with Sausage Lenticchie e salsiccia

78. Fava Bean Purée with Bitter Greens Fave e cicoria

79. Beans Cooked Like Little Birds Fagioli all'uccelletto

80. Chickpeas with Chard Ceci in zimino

81. Chickpea Flatbread Farinata

82. Minestrone

83. Egg and Cheese Broth Stracciatella

84. Spring Minestrone Minestrone di primavera

85. Summer Minestrone with Pesto Minestrone alla genovese

86. Autumn Minestrone with Pumpkin and Chestnut Mushrooms Minestrone d'autunno

87. Winter Minestrone Minestrone d'inverno

88. Breadcrumb and Cheese Noodles in Broth Passatelli in brodo

89. Little Pasta in Broth Pastina in brodo

Part Six · Verdure (14)

90. Aubergine Parmigiana Parmigiana di melanzane

91. Caponata

92. Roman Braised Artichokes Carciofi alla romana

93. Bitter Greens Twice-Cooked Cicoria ripassata

94. Stewed Peppers Peperonata

95. Fried Courgettes with Mint and Vinegar Zucchine alla scapece

96. Roast Potatoes with Rosemary Patate al forno con rosmarino

97. Baked Fennel with Parmesan Finocchi gratinati

98. Bottled Passata Passata di pomodoro

99. Aubergines under Oil Melanzane sott'olio

100. Garden Vegetables in Vinegar Giardiniera

101. Sweet and Sour Little Onions Cipolline in agrodolce

102. Slow-Roasted Tomatoes in Oil Pomodori al forno sott'olio

103. Apricot Jam Marmellata di albicocche

Part Seven · Carne, Pesce, Uova (20)

104. Beef Braised in Red Wine Brasato al vino rosso

105. Meatballs in Tomato Polpette al sugo

106. Braised Veal Shanks Ossobuco alla milanese

107. Hunter's Chicken Pollo alla cacciatora

108. Veal with Prosciutto and Sage Saltimbocca alla romana

109. Escalopes with Lemon Scaloppine al limone

110. Roast Pork Loin with Rosemary and Garlic Arista alla fiorentina

111. Italian Meatloaf Polpettone

112. Fish in Crazy Water Pesce all’acqua pazza

113. Spaghetti with Clams Spaghetti alle vongole

114. Mussels in Garlic and Wine Cozze alla marinara

115. Fish Baked in Paper Pesce al cartoccio

116. Stewed Squid with Tomatoes and Peas Calamari in umido con piselli

117. Grilled Fish with Lemon and Oregano Sauce Pesce alla griglia con salmoriglio

118. Frittata with Greens Frittata di verdure

119. Eggs in Purgatory Uova in purgatorio

120. Pasta Frittata Frittata di pasta

121. Sweet Onion Frittata Frittata di cipolle

122. Asparagus with Fried Eggs and Parmesan Asparagi alla milanese

123. Egg Ribbons in Tomato Sauce Uova in trippa

Part Eight · Pane e Dolci (14)

124. Focaccia

125. Everyday Country Loaf Pane casereccio

126. Pizza in the Tray Pizza in teglia

127. Romagna Flatbread Piadina

128. Crunchy Fennel Rings Taralli

129. Breadsticks Grissini

130. Tiramisù

131. Jam Tart Crostata

132. Breakfast Ring Cake Ciambellone

133. Apple Cake Torta di mele

134. Cooked Cream Panna cotta

135. Almond Biscuits of Prato Cantucci di Prato

136. Chocolate and Almond Cake from Capri Torta caprese

137. Warm Wine Custard Zabaione

❦ a taste of what is waiting ❦

Everyday

Aglio, Olio e Peperoncino

Four ingredients, one of them the pasta water. Twenty minutes.

Roman

Cacio e Pepe

Two ingredients and one rule about heat. Nothing else.

Cucina Povera

Ribollita

Yesterday's bread, beans and greens. Feeds eight.

Sunday

Ragù alla Bolognese

The long one, properly. Worth the afternoon.

IV How it reaches you

Three steps, about thirty seconds.

There is no account, no password, no app to install, and nothing arrives in the post.

You pay

Through Gumroad, the same checkout thousands of writers and cooks use. Your card details never touch this site.

The book opens

On the very next screen, about thirty seconds later. Phone, tablet or computer — whichever is nearest the stove.

It stays in your email

The same link lands in your inbox, so it is there again on any night you cook, for good.

Lucia lifting fresh focaccia from the oven

Warm from the oven — the bread to bake first.

Lucia

Lucia, in her own kitchen

Lucia at the stove

At the pan, where it all happens

V About Lucia

Who is doing the writing down.

I learned to cook standing at my grandmother's elbow, and she had learned at hers — women who fed nine people a day out of a garden, a tin of tomatoes and a heavy pan, with never a measuring cup nor a written recipe between them. Nobody wrote a word of it down. You learned it by watching, and you carried it in your hands.

If you asked her how much, she said quanto basta — as much as is enough — and went back to the pan. That answer is no use at all to somebody standing alone in a kitchen at six o'clock. So I followed her about with a notebook for years and weighed what she would not.

What surprised me was that the measures turned out to be the easy part. The real thing she knew was sixty small moves nobody had thought to write down: when the pan comes off the heat, why the sauce finishes with the pasta instead of sitting on top of it, what stale bread is actually for. None of that is in any recipe anywhere. All of it is in this book.

My own grandchildren are grown and gone and never learned a bit of it, and I am about the last one left who cooks this way. So I started setting it down on purpose, before it goes with me. That is the whole reason for the channel, and the whole reason for this book.

I am no chef. I know these things because I lived them and my people taught me, and that is the only kind of knowing an Italian kitchen ever cared about. Cook from it once and it is yours to keep and to hand on.

It is not a keepsake to sit on a shelf. It is supper — the way she would have made it, in your own kitchen, tonight.

Lucia

VI La cucina povera

The knowing is the treasure. The grocery bill is only the bonus.

My people never had anything, and they fed whole families like kings out of a garden, a tin of tomatoes and what most folk throw away. That making-do is the real inheritance in this book. That it also happens to be the cheapest good eating you will ever do was always just the way of it.

The tired-night way

One person, one month

  • Takeaway and restaurant dinners$215
  • Bought lunches$104
  • Coffee and grab-and-go breakfasts$46
  • Delivery fees and tips$34
  • A month$399

Lucia's way

One person, cooking from the book

  • Week one shop$49
  • Week two shop$46
  • Week three shop$48
  • Week four shop$45
  • A month$188

A pot of beans and a pan of bread feeds you most of a week, at around a dollar a bowl. Cook your suppers from the book instead of buying them and you keep about $211 a month — better than $2,500 a year.

Your real number depends on how often you eat out now. Typical, not guaranteed.

But the money is the least of it. What you are really keeping is the knowing itself, and that does not come back once it is gone.

VII Get the book

The whole Italian kitchen, and everything beside it.

The book and all seven companions — one payment, no subscription, yours forever.

Lucia's Cookbook and all seven companions

Everything here — the book and every companion beside it — for one payment.

Everything you get

  • Lucia's Cookbook649 pages, 137 recipes, 68 numbered tricks, the reason under every step$39.99
  • Il Ricettarioevery recipe on its own card, set big, made to print and keep by the stove$19Free
  • The Quanto Basta Card“q.b.”, “un filo d'olio”, “a hot oven” turned into real cups, grams and degrees$14Free
  • The Seasonal Kitchen Calendarwhat's good and what to keep each month, a printable sheet for the cupboard door$14Free
  • The Large-Print Editionbig, easy-on-the-eyes type for reading while you cook$17Free
  • The Almanac of Putting Bywhat to preserve, dry and bottle, month by month$15Free
  • “Write Down Your Own Nonna's”blank pages to save your own family's, before they go$12Free
  • Lifetime updatesevery new recipe and trick Lucia sets down, free forever$19Free
Total value$149.99

Add it all up and it comes to $149.99.

Your price today, for all of it:

$39.99

About what one takeaway dinner for two costs — for 137 dinners you can cook for the rest of your life.

You save $110 at the launch price
Get everything · $39.99

Instant download · read on any phone, tablet or computer · one payment, no subscription

7-Day Money-Back Guarantee. Cook one thing from it. If it is not what you hoped, send one email inside seven days and every dollar comes back — and you keep the book and every companion.

🔒 Secure checkout · Visa · Mastercard · PayPal · Apple Pay
Checkout handled securely by Gumroad — we never see or store your card, and never share your email.

IX Before you cook

Questions people ask first.

Are these the real old recipes, or dressed-up modern ones?

The real ones, cooked and tested, the way Italian home cooking was actually done — not restaurant versions. Where a video has to hold the trick back for time, the book gives you the whole thing: the measured starting point, and the reason under every step.

Is this a printed book you post to me?

No, and I would rather you knew that before you spent anything. It is a digital book that opens on your phone, tablet or computer the moment you pay. Nothing arrives in the post. You can print any page you like at home, and the recipe cards at the back are made to be printed and kept by the stove.

Do I need special equipment or a pasta machine?

No. Chapter 3 is the honest equipment list and there is nothing expensive on it. Fresh pasta is rolled by hand in this book, with a machine given as the alternative rather than the requirement.

Is this hard cooking?

No. Every recipe gives a plain measured starting point first — the kind nobody ever wrote down for me — and the by-feel mastery comes later, with the pan. You can cook something out of it tonight. And after every dish there is an honest note on what to do when it goes wrong, so a bad pan gets saved instead of thrown out.

Do I need ingredients I cannot find?

Chapter 2 is the whole pantry — thirty things, most of them already in your cupboard — with a substitution table for anything your shop does not carry. Nothing here needs a specialty grocer.

Are the measures in cups or in grams?

Both, on every recipe, with pan sizes and how much it makes. Where the two disagree, the weights are the ones that were tested.

I am not much good with computers.

Not a problem. If you can open an email you can open this. We send a link, you tap it, and the book is there on your phone or tablet whenever you want it. Nothing to install, no account, no password — and if you get stuck, one email and we will walk you through it.

Is this a subscription? Will you charge me again?

No. One payment, one time. No membership, no monthly anything, no free trial that turns into a bill.

Money is tight. Is $39.99 a stretch?

It is meant to save you money rather than cost it. One week of cooking beans, pasta and pan suppers instead of buying them out usually covers the whole thing — and you keep it for good.

Can my children and grandchildren have it too?

Yes. It is yours to keep and to hand on. That was always the point: this cooking was passed hand to hand, and now it cannot be lost.

What if it is not for me?

A plain seven-day money-back guarantee. Cook one thing, and if it is not what you hoped, one email gets every dollar back — and you keep the book and every companion.

Lucia serving a plate of pasta

Pull up a chair. Supper is ready.

Before it goes with the last of them.

$39.99 once — the whole book and every companion, no subscription, yours to keep and to hand on. Cook a few things this month; if the food never feels right, one email gets a full refund and you keep it all.

🔒 Launch price — save $110

Get everything · $39.99

$39.99 once · no subscription · 7-day refund · yours to keep and to hand on

$39.99Instant download · save $110
Get the book