Milk Street Backroads Italy: Finding Italy's Forgotten Recipes

by Christopher Kimball, J. M. Hirsch

Discover the real techniques, ingredients, and stories behind the Italian dishes you know and love—and ones you've yet to try—with 175 simple, delicious recipes from the James Beard Award‑winning team at Milk Street.

Forget everything you thought you knew about Italian cooking. In Italy, cooks throw away their garlic cloves, don’t stir their polenta, make massive meatballs that are tender and light, and never hover over their pans of risotto. True Italian cooking is simple, surprising, and so much more interesting than what we commonly believe.
 
Backroads Italy gives readers a seat at the table with cooks across Italy who share the real recipes for the foods we love, as well as the stories of the people, places, and ingredients behind them. After years scouring Italy from Lombardia to Calabria and from Sardinia to Sicily in search of fresh takes on classic recipes, the Milk Street team challenges our assumptions about Italian food, covering both traditional favorites and new‑to‑you finds. You’ll learn about the real fettucine Alfredo—which never includes cream—to the perfect torta Barozzi, which has drawn crowds to a Modena pastry shop for nearly 140 years, to unexpected ingredients like fermented chili paste.
 
Along with these exclusive recipes, this comprehensive guide to true Italian cooking includes approachable basics, such as sauces, from‑scratch pastas, and a list of everything you need on hand for a well‑stocked pantry.

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Nonfiction, Italy, Reference

416 pages, Hardcover

First published April 15, 2025

Reviews

[Miss✧Pickypants ᓚᘏᗢ · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wonderful Travel Cookbook. If you are unfamiliar with that classification, well so was I until this book. As a cookbook it's awesome, if you love Italian food it is definitely worth a read for the authentic recipes and Milk Street explanations and tips.

As someone who loves yet struggles with preparing Cacio y Pepe reading about the different versions they tasted in their travels and the explanation of why the pasta used makes a huge difference was eye-opening (it needs to be starchier which is achieved through using bronze die cut pasta, if you are curious).

The Travel part is the accompanying stories about the people, places and food they encountered across Italy. Anyone planning a trip there will come away with places they may want to check out. The backstories on the recipes from these places and people were very enjoyable reads.

And the photos in this book are lovely, especially the food, pretty much every one had me salivating and left me craving some pasta.

[Katrina Roets · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love cookbooks. That isn't a secret to anyone who knows me. However, this is so much more than your average cookbook. Yes, it has recipes. Tons of recipes. But, it also has beautiful photography and stories. I think the stories were my favorite part and I could take an afternoon just reading through them. I'm honestly torn between putting this with my other cookbooks or leaving it out as a coffee table book for everyone to enjoy.

[Jennifer Huberdeau · Rating 4 out of 5]

I review cookbooks in my food column, FORK & FOLIO for The Berkshire Eagle.
Full Review here: https://www.berkshireeagle.com/arts_a...

What is Italian cuisine?

It's a lot less tomato sauce and pasta than you believe.

(Breathe. Set aside your Italian American expectations: one-size-fits-all ragus, red sauces/gravies, cream-based Alfredo sauces, Parmesans and parmigianas over pasta, garlic bread and the like. Breathe.)
It's a whole lot more: artichokes, arugula, anchovies, arborio and carnaroli rice, beans, broccoli rabe, capers, cheeses, endive, escarole, garlic, lentils, nuts, olives, olive oil, pancetta and guanciale, polenta, Porcini mushrooms, prosciutto, radicchio, semolina flour and vinegar — and tomatoes and pasta. The cuisine is as diverse as the country's regions — so diverse that Christopher Kimball, founder, and J.M. Hirsch, editorial director, of Christopher Kimball's Milk Street, are still learning something new every time they visit Italy. In Milk Street's newest cookbook, "Backroads Italy: Finding Italy's Forgotten Recipes," the pair share the secrets they've learned scouring small eateries, local markets, farms and home kitchens: Cooks throw away their garlic, they don't stir their polenta and they don't fry their eggplant before making parmigiana.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Part armchair travel with the many essays and large part cookbook filled with Milk Street’s reliable and interesting recipes, Milk Street: Backroads Italy is a comprehensive Italian cookbook. The recipes include standards you would expect such as pastas, risottos, zuppi (soup), and dolci (sweets), but they are not same-old-same-old ones. They are like skipping the tourist trap restaurants and finding little out of the way places that have spectacular food.

A number of the recipes have been featured in earlier Milk Street cookbooks and issues of their magazine. That said, I like having all things Italian from them compiled into one (beautiful) book.

Voracious Books provided me with a copy of this cookbook; the opinions shared are my unbiased review.

[Kirk Dobihal · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is more than a cookbook, it is a travel log with food the objective. I so wish I had read this book prior to my wife and I's trip to Italy a few years ago. After reading about the haunts the author's ventured, it would have been fascinating to follow in some of their footsteps. Before finishing the book I already tried three recipes and was not disappointed. Reading this cover to cover, every recipe gave me impetus and encouragement to attempt in my kitchen what was displayed and mapped out in easy to follow guidelines. If you are in the least bit interested in Italian cuisine you should read this book and put it in your library and put it into practice in your kitchen.

[Liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I try not to purchase cookbooks anymore, after repeated looking at this one in the bookstore, I succumbed and spent the month of December browsing through it. I do like the Milk Street cookbooks as the recipes are clearly written and with helpful hints. This one was fun as there is lots beyond the recipes as they go around the regions of Italy looking for the best of well known Italian foods plus finding some not so well known ones. Have lots of post-a-notes marking recipes I want to try.

[Donna Robinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting and enlightening cookbook, highlighting the backroads of Italy. There are so many different recipes filled with history and delicious food, which I look forward to trying the recipes I saved. A lot of these recipes contain ingredients I can not have or do not like, so there was a lost chance of them due to that, but it shouldn't deter others away from them, as a lot of them look delicious from the photos. Overall, this was a decent Italian cookbook focusing on the hidden from the spotlight that have plenty to give.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I rarely actually read a cookbook, but this is the exception. The stories along with the recipes make this cookbook so unique. I actually made a delicious fettuccine Alfredo! I can’t wait to make more.

[Andrea Press]

I didn't like this cookbook. There were two recipes I liked and I am forgetting one of them. The other was for fettucine alfredo which wasn't a typical alfredo recipe because the recipe just had parmesan cheese and salted butter. It was a cheesy butter pasta recipe.

[Judy Donaldson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful cook book. I have tried a few recipes and will try more. Love the history of the regions

[Carol Carlson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the out of the way places described.

[Margaret Gerberding · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book had so many wonderful recipes!

[East Greenbush Community Library · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tasty collection of little known recipes with easy to follow directions.

[Sabkymom · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not just a cookbook! A treasure trove of culinary history, techniques and an armchair travel experience of Italy’s countryside depicted by gorgeous photography.

[Dorothy Greco · Rating 4 out of 5]

So many lovely recipes THAT I CANNOT MAKE BECAUSE THEY'RE ALL GLUTEN AND DAIRY. What was I thinking??

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.3

[Janet · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great read with some really doable fresh, simple recipes. I need to get this book back out of the library and make note of some of the restaurants mentioned!

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mm