Here in the States, we imagine an Italy populated by black-clad grandmas, patiently stirring enormous pots of tomato sauce for Sunday’s family dinner. But today’s Italy is a different scene: vibrant, ever-changing, and moving forward.

This goes for food too, as chefs, bloggers, home cooks, and, yes, even grandmas not only tweak classic dishes but also create entirely new ones with nontraditional ingredients and unusual pairings. In this book you’ll find many of those delightful recipes. Yet one thing remains unchanged—no matter how modern, cutting-edge, or innovative—Italians universally have the almost inborn cultural sense to know when enough is enough. Their recipes tend to focus on just a few quality ingredients, so the palate is never overwhelmed.

I have a fierce, profound, and zealous reverence for Italian pasta, one of that country’s most important culinary patrimonies. So, to find authentic dishes, I explored the far reaches of Italy, visiting all twenty regions and almost all of its more than one hundred provinces. I went to dozens of food festivals, which Italians hold to celebrate every ingredient imaginable, from artichokes to zucchini. I attended food shows like
Cibus
, which features the latest products, innovations, and trends;
Identitá Golose
, which hosts events with Italy’s top chefs to highlight the best of contemporary Italian cuisine; and
I Primi d’Italia
, a yearly event dedicated exclusively to Italian first courses.

I traveled to locales so remote they didn’t have internet access, to taste local grandmothers’ homemade specialties, and met with young bloggers for what was new and cutting edge. I called on some of Italy’s top chefs, cookbook authors, journalists, cooking school instructors, and leading pasta makers. I dove into the available pool of recipes, and sifted through those lesser-known outside of Italy to find the most delicious and unique.

I surfaced with some that were traditional—even centuries old—and some newly invented, like
Pasta Sushi
and
Cappuccino-Caper Pasta
.

I found entire recipe categories that may surprise you: I’ve filled a chapter with savory pasta accented with chocolate and coffee, another one with fruit sauces, and a third entirely vegetarian, with recipes so delectable that even meat lovers crave seconds. There are also many vegan recipes, like
Spaghetti with Chestnuts
and
Pasta with Zesty Horseradish-Tomato Sauce
, that are so mouthwatering they don’t even need cheese. Many recipes feature new techniques, like smoking the pasta, as in
Smoked Spaghetti with Charred Tomatoes
, or cooking it in vegetable juice instead of water, as in
Purple Pasta
. There’s a chapter on holiday specialties and even one on pasta for dessert. Despite these unusual pairings and new techniques, most of the recipes in this book are quite simple and quick to prepare. The vast majority use dried, ready-made pasta.

While I wanted to focus on recipes that were truly unusual, some were too out there, even for me. I was fine with—and loved!—
Fish Heads, Fish Heads
—a delightful sauce made with heads and other fish parts usually discarded—but I couldn’t bring myself to make a pasta stuffed with cow brains, like the classic
marubini
from Cremona. You will find a recipe that can incorporate cockscomb, the
Fit for a King
giblet ragù, which is the perfect dish for the rising numbers of offal fanatics, but no dormouse-and-thrush macaroni—
maccarruni con ragu di ghiro e tordi
—from Calabria and no
ragù di carne di cavallo
, a horse-meat sauce from Puglia.

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