• MilduraSO on December 18, 2021

  The idea behind the book is lovely and the one recipe I’ve tried so far was delicious. My only criticism is about the lack of photos of the food. Although beautiful, a full page photo of an Italian building or berlotti bean pods isn’t so welcome when it means you’re left trying to figure out what the pasta you’re attempting to shape should look like.

Notes about Recipes in this book

• How to make egg pasta dough

  • Baxter850 on January 06, 2026

    Nice dough, easy to work with. A bit wet but everything came out great.

• Pasqualina and Maria's tagliatelle with tomato and anchovy sauce

  • dyanarose on December 05, 2022

    Didn't have semolina flour, so I used standard 00 pasta flour. The noodles still turned out nicely. Easy recipe and the result was tasty. I wouldn't have it as a main on its own. Either with veg or as a starch side dish

• Gaia's culurgiones with tomato sauce

  • KarinaFrancis on March 14, 2021

    This recipe almost broke me. The filling is absolutely amazing but the actual pasta was an absolute disaster. The dough was very sloppy and sticky even though I didn’t add all the water. I added additional plain flour, which helped a little and rested it, which also helped a little but it was still very difficult to work with. I watched the pasta grannies video and a few others but the shaping was beyond me. If I ever get the nerve to try these again I’ll use a 50/50 semolina and flour dough.

• Giuseppina's pici with garlic tomato sauce

  • twoyolks on July 17, 2020

    Despite being so simple, the sauce is really quite good. The long cooking really helps meld the flavors together. I had trouble getting the pici thin enough so they were a bit too large. I'd consider just rolling and cutting the pasta like spaghetti in the future.

  • MilduraSO on December 18, 2021

    This is the first recipe I made from the book. I mistakenly assumed it would be relatively quick but nevermind, it was delicious and absolutely worth it. My only tip is to prepare the pasta dough before starting the sauce so it can rest and you can then roll it out while the sauce cooks. I waited until the sauce was near completion then learned that pici takes forever when you’re hand rolling hundreds of strands. I didn’t have any trouble with the dough or sauce, it was just time consuming. My husband isn’t a big fan of pasta but he loved this and agreed it was worth the effort.

  • KarinaFrancis on June 11, 2023

    I just made the sauce from this granny (matching it with the “earthworms” from the next page in the book). The sauce would have to be the simplest in the book but it’s absolutely delicious and was comparable to one I recently had in Siena.

• Luciana's umbricelli with "fake ragù"

  • KarinaFrancis on June 11, 2023

    I made these to go with the sauce on the previous page. I really wasn’t sure it would work with regular flour but it did. Will try these again

• Quintina's gnocchetti with chickpeas

  • spatterson88 on February 20, 2021

    This made a little more gnocchetti than we would have liked. I used a leftover pork ragu from a different recipe and added a can of diced tomatoes. Delicious and we will make again.

• Giusy's 'ndunderi with tomato sauce

  • aistern on September 13, 2024

    Very tasty. Also sent me down a fun rabbit hole researching the difference between gnocchi, gnudij and ‘ndunderi

• Franca's classic lasagna from Bologna

  • sarahawker on November 10, 2023

    Making your own pasta for this is so essential. It's a "simple" flavor so everything matters. It's really really good. Nothing difficult, but time consuming in small doses.

• Patrizia's lasagna al forno from Taranto

  • twoyolks on December 11, 2023

    This was good but it wasn't proportional to the amount of effort it required to make it.

• Alba's tagliatelle with ragù

  • MilduraSO on January 02, 2022

    A total winner. Everyone raved about how good this ragu tasted. I’m a vegetarian so I had my tagliatelle with pesto. My husband had to taste the ragu for me as it cooked. The pancetta meant it didn’t need any extra salt but he did add a bucket load of black pepper.

  • Baxter850 on January 06, 2026

    Really liked this. Would use food processor for the veggies and pancetta next time. Came together nicely. The conversion for the width of the tagliatelle is wrong. 7mm is just over a quarter of an inch.

• Silvana's potato ravioli from Mugello

  • twoyolks on January 04, 2026

    I liked but did not love these. In the end, potatoes as a filling for ravioli just didn't appeal greatly to me. It felt like eating mashed potatoes with a ragu.

• Cesaria's lorighittas with chicken

  • Ladyberd on February 01, 2021

    Delicious. I shredded the chicken into the sauce after it cooked. Would use more garlic next time. This pasta is time consuming to make but everyone loved it.

• Vanna's ciccioneddus with lamb ragù

  • MilduraSO on March 14, 2022

    I made a variation of this with lamb shanks instead of lamb steaks (about 800g). I used considerably more water for the initial cooking but otherwise followed the recipe as written. I cooked the shanks covered for about 2 hours until the meat literally fell off the bone. After removing the bones I cooked it uncovered until it had reduced to a thick sauce. I’m a vegetarian so didn’t eat it myself but my husband was so impressed he took some into work for a colleague. He’s never given food to colleagues so I think that’s testament to how good this recipe is.

• Vanda's cappellacci with pumpkin

  • MilduraSO on December 30, 2021

    I made this with butternut squash instead of pumpkin. The dough was a little dry and tough with just the eggs so I added a splash of water too. Shaping the cappellacci was much easier than I expected but I needed a brush of water to properly seal the edges.

• Eat Your Books by Jenny Hartin

  Pasta Grannies contains the wisdom of the Italian nonna you always wanted.

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