One of the most popular recipes I’ve created from scratch is my homemade Italian pasta sauce recipe. It took me a long time to get it right, as I married into an Italian family and my husband has pretty high standards when it comes to cuisine from “the boot.” Creating healthy, grain-free options of traditional Italian foods can be a challenge, so I have to admit, of all the cookbooks I’ve ever read over the years, Everyday Paleo Italian Cuisine by Sarah Fragoso is the one I wish I had created!
Sarah has a great blog where she documents her travels through other countries with her family as she learns to cook authentic cuisines from around the world.
I love that Everyday Paleo Italian Cuisine follows Sarah’s family’s trip to Italy (especially since pretty much every city in Italy is on my bucket list!). Not only are there beautiful pictures, stories and travel tips from the trip, but recipes by region as well.
Sarah even has a compilation of grain free pizza recipes, bruschetta sans bread, and 98 other great recipes. My favorite recipes to try so far have been those incorporating artichoke as this is one of my favorite foods but my most challenging to cook well!
After marrying in to an Italian family, I can say that many of the recipes are very authentic and include traditional Italian ingredients that we often miss out on here (like Calimari, which is delicious, inexpensive and easy to cook, but often overlooked in the US).
So far, I’ve tried eight of the recipes in Everyday Paleo Italian Cuisine and they have all been great (especially the sweet potato gnocchi and the risotto).
I’ve been experimenting more with making grain free versions of traditional Italian dishes lately, and hope to have an “Italian month” of recipes sometime soon, but in the meantime, I can’t recommend Sarah’s newest cookbook highly enough. Not only are the recipes amazing, but her incredible personality really shines through and reading it is like taking a trip with her and her family.
If you’ve been missing Italian favorites since going grain-free/paleo, Everyday Paleo Italian Cuisine is an excellent solution!
Do you have any healthy versions of Italian food favorites? Share below!
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Sounds yummy!
Sweet potato gnocchi? I’m Italian and I can assure you that is not typical and traditional at all (sweet potato in Italy is not used and also hard to find sometimes. It is called “American potato”, there must be a reason for it), so I doubt how authentic those recipes might be. Also considering that all the “primi piatti” include pasta or rice, I can’t image what Sarah could have put together without using grain.
But, I suppose she made tasty adjustments to Italian dishes, but please don’t call them “Italian food” as it is not.
Thank you.
Obviously, she had to subatitute some ingredients for grains. I’m not really understanding why you have such attitude in your post. She’s providing non grain meals that mimic Italian style meals. As an Italian who’s visited family in Italy & had plenty of authentic food, I’m not understanding the cause for concern. I am much more annoyed at Olive Garden claiming to serve Italian food than sweet potato gnocchi.
Eta: several Italian pastas contain tubers (I’ve made some myself), so it’s not entirely ridiculous
Well said!
in a nutshell, her recipes are as Italian as they can be considering they are Paleo recipes. substitutions were made because when eating Paleo, grains and regular potatoes, and many other common foods are not apart of the diet. No, it’s not ‘traditional’ Italian, it’s a healthier, Paleo-friendly version. Can’t wait to try some of them 🙂