The Lost Ravioli Recipes of Hoboken

I’m reading a wonderful new book called The Lost Ravioli Recipies of Hoboken. The author Laura Schenone, a friend of a writer friend, actually called me a few years back as she was working on the book. She was looking for travel tips for her trip to Liguria where she planned to research the origin of her great grandmother’s famous ravioli recipe. What she finds — on both sides of the Atlantic — is so much more. Schenone discovers her great grandparents wonderful love story, the difficult choices her ancestors had to make when emigrating to the U.S.

Ravioli is Schenone’s vehicle for telling a story about culinary history and about her own family’s history. Not only does Schenone draw the reader in with an exploration of the ingredients and techniques for making authentic ravioli, her honest examination of family dynamics and lingering ghosts makes this an addictive read. The problem is that I keep reading the book just before going to sleep and all the talk of this wonderful Italian food makes me intensely hungry. By the time I finish the book, I’m sure that I will trying to make homemade ravioli myself!