About this Event
Join us as we host author Domenica Marchetti for an evening filled with cookies and fun to celebrate her new book, ITALIAN COOKIES.
Domenica will share all about her travels through Italy and what inspired her to write this collection of more than 100 recipes for cookies, icings, and more. Our own Cate Elmore, Cordon Bleu-trained pastry chef, will be Domenica's conversation partner as they dig into all things Italian cookies - complete with a cookie tasting for everyone.
Come hear Domenica’s stories and enjoy a taste of delicious Italian cookies!
About the author:
Local author Domenica Marchetti has written nine books on Italian cooking and baking, including THE GLORIOUS PASTA OF ITALY, PRESERVING ITALY, and her most recent release, ITALIAN COOKIES: Authentic Recipes and Sweet Stories from Every Region. A former newspaper reporter who earned her master’s degree in journalism at Columbia University, Domenica writes a weekly newsletter called “Buona Domenica” on Substack. Her articles and recipes have appeared in The Washington Post, Eating Well, Fine Cooking, Food and Wine, La Cucina Italiana, and other publications.
Domenica teaches cooking classes and leads occasional small-group culinary tours and food writing workshops in Italy. She splits her time between Alexandria, VA, and Abruzzo, Italy, where her family is from. Learn more about her here.
About the book:
ITALIAN COOKIES is essentially a grand tour of Italy through its cookies. It is a deep dive into a seemingly frivolous subject that turns out to be not frivolous at all! The book was years in the making, and Domenica’s research took her to country villages, towns, and cities in all 20 regions of Italy. What she discovered as she traveled from Piedmont to Calabria and to the islands of Sicily and Sardinia, is that much like Italian food and Italian wine, the cookies of Italy are regional in character, their recipes rooted in history, in the land, the culture, and in local ingredients that tell a story. Butter in the north, olive oil and wine in the south; rich hazelnuts in Piedmontese Baci di Dama, and sweet, buttery Romano almonds in Sicilian amaretti.
Domenica visited historic bakeries and obscure bakeries, interviewing and observing bakers of all stripes, including a biker/baker from a remote mountain town in Abruzzo and a gentle neighborhood baker from Rome’s historic Trastevere neighborhood.
With 100 recipes for cookies, icings, spice mixes, and embellishments like homemade candied citrus, ITALIAN COOKIES is the definitive book on this sweet subject.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Old Town Books, 130 South Royal Street, Alexandria, United States
USD 11.49
