Finally, the Italian ‘Joy of Cooking' is here - the book Marcella relied on

WHEN I FIRST LEARNED of the existence of Ada Boni's "The Talisman of Happiness," my food-nerd reaction was extreme. Whattttt?! I thought very loudly to myself. A copy of the cookbook appeared in last summer's (great!) documentary "Marcella" about Marcella Hazan - she who first brought the deliciousness of true Italian cooking to the American masses back in the red-sauce days, starting with her 1973 "The Classic Italian Cook Book."

To a certain set, Marcella will forever be a hero for her volumes of simple, perfect recipes, written in her uncompromisingly bossy style. We call her by her first name, but reverently - RIP.

"The Talisman of Happiness" was the Italian cookbook that Marcella used as inspiration, resource, everything for her own first masterwork (and, presumably, beyond). Marcella didn't even know how to cook when she moved to the U.S. from Italy - with this cookbook, published in her native Italian in 1929, she taught herself.

The film "Marcella" noted the cookbook "The Talisman" only briefly. But the author of "Talisman" was the hero of our hero - Boni was the master of Marcella, the master!

Mind blown by this tantalizing bit of the documentary, I went directly online to look for an English translation of "The Talisman of Happiness." Yes! A 1978 reprint of a 1950 Crown Publishers edition was soon to be mine. "Italy's best-selling cookbook adapted for American kitchens," it said on the cover. "It is to Italians what Joy of Cooking is to Americans," read the inside flap.

What arrived in the mail seemed … odd. The foreword noted that Boni was also the editor of Preziosa, Italy's leading magazine for women." Later, I'd learn that she started Preziosa in 1915 and that many of the recipes in "Talisman" appeared there first, submitted by readers and gathered from Boni's travels around Italy cataloging its regional cuisines, preserving its culture.

This "Talisman," though, called for ingredients like "meat extract," with recipes such as "Baked Whiting," "Boiled Whiting," "Whiting in Baking Dish" and yet more whiting. It did remind me of "The Joy of Cooking" - but one of that classic's less-optimal editions. It also felt woefully incomplete, at just 288 small-size pages (despite all the whiting). I held onto it as a curiosity (and for its handwritten inscription: "Merry Christmas Donnie … I hope you will find something in this book to remind you of our days in Italy. I love you - Mom," dated 1995).

IT TURNS OUT that Michael Szczerban was already on the case. The founder and publisher of Little Brown's Voracious imprint first heard of "The Talisman of Happiness" from Samin Nosrat while editing her now-famous 2017 cookbook "Salt Fat Acid Heat." Nosrat had "learned about [it] in her travels through Italy when she was a young cook," Szczerban says. Highly intrigued, he commenced a quest. "I have that same edition of the 1950 abridged/bowdlerized version of ‘Talisman'!" he tells me.

He set about trying to acquire the rights to "Talisman" and get it translated - a process that ended up lasting more than a decade, Italian-style. "It took me years of phone calls, sleuthing in publisher bankruptcy records, asking the Italian trade commission for help …" Szczerban says. "In the end, it was like trying to find the rights to ‘The Joy of Cooking,' but having to find a cousin of someone who worked at the printing company to make an introduction.

"And then we had to translate nearly 2,000 recipes!" he notes. "It took eight translators."

And so Ada Boni's "Il Talismano della Felicità" finally came out in English, in full. Thanks so much to Szczerban for his obsessive efforts to bring this foundational work to the Marcella-obsessed - for his unwillingness to rest until all of this was brought full circle.

"I had come to feel a real duty to Ada," he says, "to share her work and make her name known as an essential figure in world culinary history." The reception has been hugely positive. "In my career as a publisher, my ambition is to publish works that outlast my time on this earth," Szczerban says, "and I believe I've done so with ‘Talisman.'"

It's readily apparent how "Talisman" would be a good book from which to learn to cook: instructions kept uncomplicated, quality ingredients urged, every inch of the basics (and more) covered, firmly reassuring essays included. "Dough is nothing to be afraid of …" Boni writes, "and is easily accomplished at a well-floured kitchen table." For seafood: "To cook fish you must be gentle." To fans of Marcella, the voice sounds familiar.

Here in the Pacific Northwest, salmon is back in season, and Boni has a few recipes for our favorite fish. One calls for it smoked: vermicelli al salmone, made very simply with butter and mascarpone. Another for poached salmon skews a bit dated, albeit charmingly: "If you want to prepare a dish of great effect," Boni advises that you dress the whole fish tricolor-style, with the red third accomplished by way of "tomato ketchup."

And here is the salmone al forno from "The Talisman of Happiness," baked in a way that makes you understand that the greatness of food may be left largely to lovely ingredients - like our salmon. Look for wild Pacific species: those of the Copper River, more Chinook/king and sockeye, coho/silver, keta and then pink, as spring turns into summer and then fall.

Boni's recommendation here: "You can serve it with a quick green sauce," and as the only such concoction in her section on sauces is a spicy one that might overshadow the salmon, I'll have the temerity to include a super-simple recipe of my own.

"The Talisman of Happiness" Salmone al Forno

The editor and publisher of the new English version of this classic Italian cookbook, Michael Szczerban, says he loves that its recipes show "that perfection is more often obtained by doing less than by doing more." Yes!

3 pounds 5 ounces salmon

1 onion

Parsley

Olive oil

White wine

Salt

Pepper

Clean, wash and dry the salmon and place it in a baking dish, covering it with chopped onion and parsley. Add salt, pepper, a few spoons of oil and half a glass of white wine, and leave to flavor for a few hours in this marinade.

Then, bake the pan in a preheated oven and cook at a moderate heat for about three-quarters of an hour [Editor's note: Ada Boni's original recipes predate oven thermometers, but per the cookbook's Notes for Cooks," "moderate heat" means 350 degrees]. From time to time, baste the fish with its marinade.

Look for an internal temperature of 120 degrees for medium-rare.

Quick Green Sauce for Salmon

This also makes a great salad dressing or dip for vegetables/chips/life in general. - Bethany Jean Clement

½ cup plain whole milk Greek yogurt

¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil

¼ cup parsley

Kosher salt and fresh-ground black pepper to taste

Blend all ingredients with an immersion blender (easiest cleanup), regular blender or food processor. Alternately, finely chop the parsley, then mix all ingredients by hand.

Copyright 2026 Tribune Content Agency. All Rights Reserved.