Discover the hidden secrets of Italian food in 125 simple, iconic dishes and unknown gems from Sicily to Milan, from the James Beard Award-winning team at Milk Street

Forget everything you thought you knew about Italian food. In Italy, cooks throw away their garlic, they don't stir their polenta, and they never labor over pans of risotto. But they do make enormous meatballs that are tender and light, and occasionally break all the rules when making pasta.

The editors at Milk Street have spent years scouring small eateries, local markets, farms, and home kitchens from Lombardia to Calabria and from Sardinia to Sicily in search of fresh takes on classic recipes, as well as little-known regional favorites that never crossed the Atlantic.

On our travels we found new ways with pasta, from foolproof cacio e pepe in Rome to Puglia's olive-oil crisped fettuccine with chickpeas and a lemony pesto from Amalfi, where the pasta itself is enriched with citrus. Plus some surprising tomato sauces, including spaghetti all'assassina from Bari-spicy, charred, and made in one skillet.

We visited a Neapolitan trattoria where five sisters serenade diners with opera and serve an eggplant Parmesan that's rich, but never fried. In Northern Italy, we made meatball-like bread dumplings simmered in chicken broth. And in Sardinia, a hearty herb soup studded with pancetta, beans and tiny nuggets of pasta.

Milk Street Backroads Italy gives you a seat at the table with Italian cooks sharing the food they love, handed down from generation to generation.