As a child, Lidia Bastianich, raised in Italy, remembers seeing a particular cookbook in almost every kitchen. It was called ““The Talisman of Happiness” and it used to be given as wedding gift to couples starting a new life together.
“It has all the basic recipes. And it says the fundamental thing: that the food is a connector, that food is happiness,” he says.
Ada Boni’s book—whose title in Italian is “The Talisman of Happiness“— was first published in 1929 and became an essential resource for finding the recipe for spaghetti carbonara or pork galantine. simplicity and accessibility They drew comparisons to “The Joy of Cooking,” but it preceded Irma S. Rombauer’s iconic work.
This fall, the first English edition of the complete work, with almost 1,700 recipes, hits shelves, thanks to years of dogged searching by voracious editor Michael Szczerban.
He first learned about it thanks to Samin Nosrat, author of “Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat”, and that, added to his love for Italy, prompted him to embark on a journey of more than a decade to obtain the rights to publish it in English. “Just the poetry of that title — ‘The Talisman of Happiness’ — seemed timeless to me and, at the same time, like something from a long time ago,” Szczerban says.
Boni, who died in 1973, was one of the first food writers in Italy, and the seed of “The Talisman of Happiness” It came from a magazine. He codified and tasted dishes that have remained the backbone of Italian cuisine and reflect regional differences. Contains 10 gnocchi recipes, 12 minestrones and 20 risottos.
“This is a cookbook designed for cooking. It’s a book for cooks. A book designed to be used, not just to be on the coffee table or on a shelf, but to become yours,” says Szczerban.
There is no fancy language or stories. Each entry includes the ingredients, and the instructions usually consist of a few paragraphs, instructing the home cook to have the meat “cooked” and the vegetables “to taste.”
Unlike recipes from Milk Street, Bon Appetit or America’s Test Kitchen, Boni didn’t weigh ingredients by the gram or dictate the oven temperature. Their Cod with White Wine only specifies “a few tablespoons” of wine. In other places, ask for a “finger of oil” or “some rosemary leaves.”
“I think there was a very specific editorial vision for these recipes, which was to give you enough to make them, but not so much that you couldn’t make them your own,” Szczerban says.
A 12-year detective adventure
The more Szczerban learned about «The Talisman of Happiness»the more intrigued he felt. What at first was an urge to find a copy for himself turned into something bigger.
“As I began to better understand its significance—the place it seemed to have occupied in Italian history and culture, and then the spread of Italian cuisine around the world—I thought, ‘I don’t just need a copy. I need to use my position as an editor to make it known to the rest of the English-speaking world,'” he says.
The book had been updated regularly in Italy and some attempts had been made to create an English version, but the recipes were modified to suit American tastes and greatly reduced. “No one had translated the entire work,” says Szczerban.
Szczerban began a detective adventure that took him about 12 years: he called random numbers at the Italian publisher with a script created with Google Translate, studied bankruptcy reports to see who might have inherited the intellectual property rights, and talked to every Italian figure and literary agent he could.
A breakthrough came when he contacted a book packager—like a movie producer, but for books—who knew someone who knew someone who might be able to locate a relative. A few months later, they found a great-nephew. “I think they needed someone in Italy to build a relationship of trust,” Szczerban says.
He decided to use the 1959 Italian edition as a model, using eight translators. He only removed the completely unworkable recipes and the sections on Italian etiquette that were outdated. The original edition was consulted constantly.
“We wanted it to remain Ada’s book. We weren’t trying to modernize it. We were trying to preserve it and keep it intact,” he says. “For me, the word talisman has great power. I wanted it to remain the talisman it was when it was first published.”
Bastianich wrote a foreword for the English edition and claims that it captures the culture, religion, topography and climate of Italy. “Italians greatly appreciate their cultural heritage,” he says.
Szczerban has already seen it in action. For a potluck at the office, a sales rep who liked the book decided to prepare baked wine donuts, a kind of shortbread cookies with wine mixed with flour.
“She’s not a baker. She’d never seen this before. But there was something intriguing about it that brought her into the kitchen and, I assure you, they were incredible,” he says.
They came out right the first time, and stepping out of your comfort zone a little gave you the confidence to embark on the next recipe, and the next. To me, that’s the magic of a book like this: it can seduce you in some ways, but then it gives you something in return.
Baked Wine Donuts
Serves 36
Ingredients
- 3⅓ cups all-purpose flour
- ¾ cup olive oil
- ½ cup of sugar
- ¾ cup of wine
- Oil for greasing
Instructions
1.- Put the flour in a pile and add the oil, sugar and a glass of light wine, white or red, in the hole in the center. You need a pasta that is neither too hard nor too soft. Form a ball, let it rest for a few minutes and then divide it into 4 or 5 parts.
2.- Take one piece at a time and roll it out on a lightly floured surface until it forms a roll the width of your thumb. Cut it into pieces of about 20 cm and shape each one into a donut, pressing the ends so they don’t open. Proceed in the same way until they are all gone.
3.- Place the donuts on a lightly greased baking sheet, sprinkle them with sugar and bake them for about 20 minutes in a preheated oven at a good temperature.
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