Anna Francese Gass is bringing Italian snacking culture to the masses.
Plus, three recipes for a very Italian Memorial Day Weekend.
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Anna Francese Gass is a cookbook writer and recipe developer that is a regular contributor to The New York Times, Bon Appétit, and Food52. Her newest book, Italian Snacking, introduces Americans to the wide world of Italian spuntini culture. I chatted with her about her career as a recipe developer, Italian snacking culture, and authenticity in cookbook writing.
Plus, for Memorial Day Weekend this weekend, I’ve got two recipes from Anna and one from me for a very Italian-focused feast. From Anna, we’ve got Pampanella (southern Italian paprika ribs) and Polenta bites (for paid subscribers). From me, a very easy Italian-ish Potato Salad. They’ll be the star of your long weekend cookout!
Brianna Plaza: Tell me about your background.
Anna Francese Gass: When I graduated from college, I originally went into finance. I did that for my early 20s and I got married and had kids. When my second daughter was born, I decided I didn’t enjoy my work at all, so I decided to go to culinary school and do a complete career change. I went to the French Culinary Institute with the intention of going into food media. I didn't really want to work in restaurant, but I did a little bit of restaurant work to earn my stripes. I started working for Martha Stewart Living in the test kitchen, which I absolutely loved. I also did work for Food52.
I stayed on with Food52 as their in-house chef until I got pregnant with my third child, and stayed on as recipe tester for their cookbooks. A few years later, I decided I really wanted to utilize my talents to get my mom's recipes written down. My mom is an immigrant and I wanted to standardize her recipes. But then I thought this could be a really great project, so I created the blog Heirloom Kitchen. I just kind of ran around the country cooking with immigrant grandmothers and getting their stories. And in 2019, I published it as my first cookbook with HarperCollins.
Brianna Plaza: How did working in test kitchens influence your writing and recipe development?
Anna Francese Gass: In college, I was actually a journalism minor and I always really loved to write. I obviously love to cook, too, so being able to merge those two passions has always been really fulfilling for me. So with Heirloom Kitchen, my work in test kitchens meant that I knew how to structure a recipe properly and make sure something worked. When you’re writing a recipe, it should work for 99% of the people. You can't account for the 1% that substitute three of the ingredients or skip a step. But for everybody else, you want it to work. With Heirloom Kitchen, I really got to flex my journalistic muscle by writing all the women's recipes down.
Brianna Plaza: Tell me about Italian snacking culture.
Anna Francese Gass: After Heirloom Kitchen, a couple of people asked me if I was going to do a part two. And I really wasn’t interested in that. I felt like it was a lightning in a bottle idea and it wouldn’t feel authentic to find another 35 women.
I noticed that snacking culture started really trending here. Everyone was all about #snacks and I noticed that there were a lot of snacking cake books from big recipe developers. Snacking culture has been around in Europe for a very long time. The English always have afternoon tea. Obviously in Spain they snack. Italians have these points during the day where they snack. It’s very structured — 10am, afternoon, aperitivo hour. And there’s this whole other blanket of snack time in street foods.
We do cocktail hour very well here in this country, but I thought, how fun would it be to explore all of this? And I think spuntini culture is just super fun, so I figured why not show people how it’s done?
Brianna Plaza: As an Italian-American, how did you approach the concept of authenticity while writing your book?
Anna Francese Gass: I was born in Italy, but I came here when I was two years old. I think I qualify as more of an Italian-American than an Italian-Italian. That being said, I did try to truly honor the recipes as I found them. So for example, if there was a recipe that calls for a specific kind of cheese, I do list it. But what I also do is say, "Hey, that's not so easy to find here. So here is a completely acceptable substitute."
I wanted to really honor the recipe as it was because Italians do tend to wag the food police finger. But I also realize that I'm not in your kitchen. You might not be able to find this specific thing. I listed what should be used, but you can always use something that’s familiar to you and it's going to give you a very close flavor profile.
Brianna Plaza: There’s a lot in the book that is familiar to Americans, but also a lot of less familiar snacks. What should become staples?
Anna Francese Gass: I really feel like we live on a food hamster wheel in the United States. It’s like, “I like this because I’ve always had it, and I’ve always had it because I like it.” And we don’t really venture out of our comfort zone until someone suggests something else. I thought it would be really silly to write a book about Eggplant Parmesan or Carbonara because, yes, they’re amazingly delicious, but if you Google those recipes, there are 4,000 search results.
So my whole thing is that if you’re going to buy my book, I need to give you something new. I need to give you something that’s going to make you say oh, I’ve never seen this before. So for example, in the Pizza section, I have this pizza from Naples called Parigina, which just means Parisian Pizza. It’s a traditional pizza, but before they put in the oven, they lay puff pastry on top and they sprinkle it with ham.
Or the Pampanella (Paprika Ribs) which are such a sleeper hit. It's got lots and lots of really smoky paprika rubbed into pork and then slow cooked. It's a street food from Molise, and you get all these different smoky pieces of pork that have been slow cooked. To adapt it for Americans, I flipped it to ribs because everyone loves ribs.
Pampanella and Panissa Ligure reprinted with permission from Italian Snacking: Sweet and Savory Recipes for Every Hour of the Day © 2024 Anna Francese Gass. Published by Union Square & Co.
