Italy's iconic cookbook known as "The Talisman of Happiness" finally gets a full English translation

 "The Talisman of Happiness", which is a very widely-held cookbook in Italy, has finally received a full English-language translation. And, the story of getting legal copyright to the classic Italian cookbook was fascinating unto itself.

This became a very iconic Italian cookbook, first published in Italy back in 1929, which happens to be in just about everyone's kitchen (at least in Italy) was only published in the Italian language until now. Until late 2025, there was never a translation to English for the cookbook in its entirety. 

On December 23, 2025, North Carolina Public Radio (WUNC) reported (see https://www.wunc.org/2025-12-23/a-classic-italian-cookbook-finally-gets-a-full-english-translation/ for the story) that the cookbook authored by Ada Boni (the cookbook's Italian title is "Il Talismano della Felicita" and the title translated into English is "The Talisman of Happiness") never had a full English-language translation until now. The audio for that story can be found below. 

The book's ("The Talisman of Happiness") author Ada Boni had codified and tested dishes from around Italy that have remained the backbone of Italian cooking and reflect regional differences. For example, the book contains 10 different gnocchi recipes, 12 minestrones and 20 risottos. The interesting thing about "The Talisman of Happiness" is just how approachable all of the recipes actually are for busy home cooks in Italy. 

Michael Szczerban, the publisher at Voracious who helped to publish this new, English language edition of "Talisman of Happiness" which was published in October 2025, told NPR (see the aforementioned link):

He commented that in this cookbook, "there's a risotto - she [author Ada Boni] calls it risotto with seven flavors - that you actually bake in the oven. You're not standing in front of the stove, stirring it endlessly for 30 minutes." 

He added: "Ada was just like us. She needed to put food on the table. The time when she was writing was a moment of great transformation in Italian society, and people had the same challenges that we do today. They were busy. They needed to be economical. They didn't want to waste things."

The recipes were written for busy housewives to prepare meals for their families, not chefs with gourmet kitchens and staffs to help them. Its simplicity and accessibility got the Italian cookbook compared to "The Joy of Cooking," although as the AP reported, the Italian cookbook predated Irma S. Rombauer's iconic work by several decades. 

The Associated Press News (AP) covered the news of its first Italian to English translation at https://apnews.com/article/talisman-happiness-italy-cookbook-7ca5a58b59699f986af6026e58923c11 and it is definitely worth a read and perhaps a place in your own kitchen library!

Casserole ("Hot dish") Cookbooks for Autumn

Back in 2019, during the COVID lockdown and a highly-contagious illness was spreading rapidly nationwide and there were no vaccines available at the time to prevent its spread, therefore public health mandated the closure of many public places (including countless restaurants), most Americans were forced to cook at home because dining out was no longer a viable option at the time, some people were forced to find dishes to cook at home, and some turned to cookbooks for dinner ideas and recipes. 

I was one of them.

I discovered one particular cookbook entitled "Hot Dish Heaven: Classic Casseroles from Midwest Kitchens" by Ann L. Burckhardt (I bought it in paperback; I'm unsure if there even is a hard-cover edition) which was published by the Minnesota Historical Society Press and is quite possibly the one particular casserole cookbook which I have consistently found the most recipes which I use fairly often. There seems to be a good variety (some 70 recipes) in that cookbook to choose from.

Hot Dish Heaven had become my go-to source for a whole bunch of different casserole recipes (or "hot dish" recipes as they're called in Minnesota). The author is a retired Minneapolis Star Tribune "Taste" section editor, so she has an established, published history as a food writer based in Minnesota. But her book featured nearly seventy kitchen-tested recipes collected from casserole connoisseurs across the Midwest.

This particular cookbook also had the most recipes which are not only very easy-to-make, but they taste pretty good, too. There's a wide variety of different casserole categories in the book, including casseroles containing different proteins (including ground beef, roasted turkey or chicken, ham, some fish or shellfish and even eggs), as well as recipes which contain different starches (tater tots in some recipes, but others contain rice including native Minnesota wild rice which grows in over 2000 Minnesota lakes/rivers/marshes/streams and is usually harvested annually between August and September. I find that is often sold in a box (being mixed with white rice) nationwide, and includes a salty seasoning packet which you don't really need to use, as well as various noodles or potatoes and/or various other root vegetables). In other words, this recipe book had enough variety to keep me from starving, which I first discovered during the pandemic.

Also, one upside in my opinion was that not all of these recipes used cream of mushroom soup (which flavor-wise, I think tastes kind of yucky; I don't like mushrooms generally), although the good thing is that most types of creamed soups can usually be substituted for cream of mushroom soup interchangeably. 

My personal favorite is using a can of cream of chicken soup, which is readily available including in many store-branded versions for people on a budget. Others, such as cream of celery soup are also still around, but are somewhat less widely-sold today than they once were, but some bigger supermarkets still sell that. Recipes using canned "cream-of" soups are not necessarily the healthiest recipes, but they certainly work well in a recipe as a type of gravy base while adding flavor, they tend to be quick, and they can satisfy a wide range of tastes. She also breaks them up to include separate sections for fish casseroles, and for breakfast casseroles, therefore helping you find what you're looking to cook quickly.

While "Hot Dish Heaven" waxes nostalgic about casserole recipes mined from an era of older cookbooks such as one called Marian Tracy's Casserole Cookery which was first published in 1941, and to her credit, Ann L. Burckhardt has taken great care to update the recipes in her cookbook for an audience circa the year 2006. She did this not just in terms of the names of ingredients (e.g. her book uses terms such as "chicken" instead of the terms used in historical cookbooks which referred to the same ingredient as a "young fat hen" or "pheasant" as older, more historical cookbooks sometimes did), and also in terms of more up-to-date cooking times in modern ovens and even preparation methods. 

For that reason, I have found this book was more useful than having to occasionally translate some older casserole recipes for more modern audiences. Also, the recipes in this cookbook were all very easy to assemble, being contained on a single page, or at most, two pages, with ingredients and instructions in the book.

Thanks to Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software, I am able to pretty easily scan recipes from printed books with relative ease, and convert those scans to text. 

Hence, below is a recipe I opted to share from "Hot Dish Heaven", and this particular recipe is for Turkey Tetrazzini, which has historically been a popular way to use-up leftover Thanksgiving turkey, although one of the most interesting things Ann L. Burckhardt notes in this book's introduction that in many of these recipes (including the one which follows), you can easily swap-out turkey for roasted chicken, ham or ground beef, and suddenly, you have an entirely new recipe variation, which is one reason this particular casserole recipe has endured.

Turkey Tetrazzini

By Ann L. Burckhardt, Hot Dish Heaven 

MAKES 6 SERVINGS

Betty Crocker Kitchens in Golden Valley was my work home in the late 1950s and early 1960s. I learned a great deal about recipe development and about teamwork. In 1958, Betty, our icon, was being transformed from a baking expert to an authority on entertaining. To that end, General Mills contracted with a New York writer, Llewellyn Miller, for a book called Easy Entertaining. The cosmopolitan Miss Miller came to Minnesota to confer with those of us working on the recipes for her book. This delectable casserole was featured in the Midnight Suppers chapter. It rated raves from the homemakers on the "Minneapolis 30" home testers panel. They liked having the choice of alternate ingredients. I've served this tetrazzini regularly since then, most recently for a quiet holiday dinner.

Ingredients:

• 6 oz uncooked spaghetti
• 2 c cooked turkey, cut into small pieces
• 1/2 c cubed cooked ham or 1/4 c crumbled cooked bacon
• 1/4 c chopped green pepper or 4-oz can pimento, chopped 1 c pitted ripe olives (cut into lg pieces), or 1/2 lb fresh button mushrooms halved, 1 egg yolk beaten
• 1/4 c butter
• 6 tbsp flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp ground white pepper
• 1 c chicken or turkey broth
• 1 c half-and-half
• 3 tbsp dry sherry (optional)
• 1/2 c grated Parmesan cheese or slivered almonds

Instructions: 

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Heat water to a rapid boil in a large kettle. Break spaghetti in 2-inch pieces. Cook according to package directions. Drain, rinsing with hot water. While spaghetti is boiling, combine turkey, and ham or bacon, pepper or pimento, and olives or mushrooms in a mixing bowl. Separate the egg yolk from white and have yolk ready to add. 
2. Melt butter over low heat in a heavy saucepan. Blend in flour and seasonings. Cook and stir, with heat on low, until the flour paste is smooth and bubbly. Remove pan from burner, stir in half the broth. Return to heat and cook, stirring frequently, while gradually adding remainder of broth and the half-and-half. Boil the sauce for 1 minute—this eliminates any floury taste from uncooked flour. 
3. Remove from heat and stir in sherry, if using. Turn the drained spaghetti into the sauce and toss with two large spoons until pasta is coated with sauce. 
4. Stir egg yolk into the hot pasta mixture. Then add the pasta to the turkey mixture in a bowl, again tossing to distribute ingredients.
5. Pour into a 2-quart baking dish—I use a big square shallow Corelle dish. 
6. Sprinkle on cheese or almonds. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes.

At least one rival cookbook published around the same time as "Hot Dish Heaven" includes one with the title of "The Casserole Queens Cookbook: Put Some Lovin' in Your Oven with 100 Easy One-Dish Recipes" by Crystal Cook and Sandy Pollock (that particular cookbook was subsequently followed-up with a second cookbook entitled "The Casserole Queens Make-a-Meal Cookbook: Mix and Match 100 Casseroles, Salads, Sides, and Desserts" with even more casserole recipes, which also included some side-dishes and desserts as well). 

The two authors established a website found at https://www.casserolequeens.com/ which you can check-out, including a recipe page which is found at https://www.casserolequeens.com/pages/recipes/full including several which were published in Woman's Day magazine which can be found using the following link shared on their website, which I am providing here for my readers https://www.womansday.com/casserole-queens/?src=soc_fcbks. 

Collectively, these sites might be worth a visit if you're looking for some casserole recipes as we head into the autumn season. The paperback edition of the latter cookbook I cited also happens to be the exact same size and fits on a bookshelf nicely right next to the other(s). 

Not long after these authors' cookbooks were published, the self-titled "Casserole Queens" authors Crystal Cook and Sandy Pollock also published a blog where they shared some (but hardly all) of the recipes from their bestselling cookbook(s). That blog is no longer actively updated anymore, although the blog's pages with their recipes remain accessible. 

While I found fewer recipes in the "Casserole Queens" two casserole cookbook(s) which I actually use on a consistent basis, perhaps the most notable exception was author Crystal Cook's family recipe for stuffed bell peppers which she named "Mamaw's Stuffed Peppers" (Mamaw Maggie was the name she called her grandmother). That one was definitely a keeper IMHO!

I really enjoyed that particular recipe, and have made that recipe quite frequently, although I usually just call it the recipe for "Stuffed Bell Peppers" (no offense to Mamaw). I also skip the breadcrumbs called for in the recipe, as it's just an unnecessary, decorative addition which isn't really necessary, so I skip that.

Incidentally, the recipe for "Mamaw's Stuffed Peppers" can be found online free at https://casserolequeens.wordpress.com/2013/12/18/mamaws-stuffed-peppers/ and I think it may be the only recipe I have which actually uses allspice as a seasoning! That recipe was also a keeper. Since I did not need OCR software for that recipe, I am also sharing it in this post.

Stuffed Bell Peppers ("Mamaw's Stuffed Peppers")

By Crystal Cook, The Casserole Queens Cookbook

MAKES 5-6 SERVINGS 

Ingredients:

• 5-6 green, colored or mixed bell peppers (depending on the size of the peppers)
• 1 lb ground beef
• 1 lg onion, finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp ground black pepper
• 2 (14.75 oz) cans diced tomatoes
• 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1/2 tsp ground allspice
• 1 c cooked long-grain white rice
• Cooking spray
• 1 tbsp butter
• 1/2 c seasoned bread crumbs 

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Cut off the top of each bell pepper and remove the seeds. Put the peppers in a large pot of boiling salted water and cook for exactly 5 minutes, but not for a second longer (or they will turn to mush). Drain the pepper and place in ice-water for a minute or two, then drain again-well, and set aside.
3. Set a skillet over medium heat. Add the beef, onion, and garlic, and season with salt and pepper. Cook the ground beef, breaking up any lumps with the back of a spoon, until the beef is browned thoroughly, about 10 minutes. Add the can of tomatoes (including liquid) and simmer for 10 minutes. Add the Worcestershire sauce, allspice, and rice; stir well and allow the mixture to cool.
4. Coat a 9x13 casserole dish with cooking spray. Stuff the peppers with the beef/rice/tomato mixture and place in the prepared casserole dish. Any leftover stuffing may be refrigerated or frozen for later use.
5. If you opt to include breadcrumb topping, in a small saucepan, melt the butter. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the bread crumbs. Scatter the bread crumbs over the peppers.
6. Place the dish in the baking dish in the oven. Bake the stuffed bell peppers at 350 degrees F for 25 minutes, or until the bread crumbs are golden brown and the meat is heated thoroughly. (I don't even bother with the bread crumbs anymore, and routinely skip that part of this recipe.)

Some of my preference for "Hot Dish Heaven" over the "Casserole Queens" was simply the author's writing style (Ann L. Burckhardt seems to be slightly better at writing more succinctly; perhaps that is her editorial background), and the fact that Crystal Cook and Sandy Pollock are young and Southern (from Texas), rather than grandmotherly and Midwestern, hence there may also be a possible editorial writing style factor which I preferred. 

But if you're looking to actually buy a cookbook, I highly recommend "Hot Dish Heaven", although I do recommend that you can and should borrow "The Casserole Queens" cookbook and/or its sequel at your public library (you can also buy it if you wish, but if you only have cash to buy one, you know my preference). You might find some recipe in one or all of them to bring to your next potluck supper, or you can freeze one for a ready-made dinner at some point in the future. 

A third hot dish cookbook I discovered on a trip to Minnesota (although I bought it online when I got back home) was called "The Great Minnesota Hot Dish: Your Cookbook for Classic Comfort Food" by Theresa Millang and Karen Corbett which I discovered at a MSP airport gift shop (and at a Minnesota gift shop at Mall of America). This book was a much smaller cookbook in size, but was published in full-color which is nice for searching and to know what the recipe should look like when you cook it. 

There is some overlap or redundancy in all of the recipes found in these different cookbooks (tater tots, for example, tends to be a recurring ingredient in many of the recipes, although slightly less-so in the "Casserole Queens" cookbooks; that must be the Midwestern culinary influence at work), but some originals in each as well. 

The nice part is because "The Great Minnesota Hot Dish" cookbook is published in full-color with photos, you'll know what your own casserole should probably look like when it's finished and what looks appetizing.

Anyway, if you're searching for casserole (or hot dish) recipes, there are some alternative sources, and they are free online (at the moment, anyway). 

For example, "Parade" magazine, the one which used to be featured in the Chicago Tribune Sunday editions and later expanded to many Sunday newspapers around the country, which continues to be published, albeit now only in an online format, and that also has a good source of pretty decent casserole recipes. For those, visit https://parade.com/986637/parade/casserole-recipes/ — this is good if you're willing to browse for something different which you may not have discovered before, although the recipes there are not really organized in any particular fashion, but what do you expect for no charge? The variety of recipes is nevertheless quite impressive and there are some keepers there, too.

In the end, whether you call them casseroles or hot dishes, I hope this list provides some useful sources for one-dish recipes which can be popped in the oven for an easy, tasty dinner (or frozen for future use). Keeping dinner recipe ideas fresh is a challenge for many household cooks and having access to good sources with free recipes is a resource many people would find useful.

Mining Vintage Recipes to Find a Taste of our Childhoods

There are certain recipes which our mothers (or, in some cases, our fathers) hand down to us because they might have been favorites when we were growing up. Maybe we ask for them, or when we're out on our own, our parents share them with us. But aside from going through old recipe files (which many people retain long after their parents pass away), but trying to find some of those old recipes if we don't have those things is not always a small or easy undertaking. 

Once upon a time, for example, Hollywood press agents would routinely release recipes which were supposedly from celebrities back in the day which home cooks could make for themselves, although its less clear that the celebrities ever actually made those dishes. Several cookbooks consisting of recipes which were supposedly from celebrities (now dead ones) was compiled by Frank DeCaro. I blogged about that back in 2014 at https://hgm.sstrumello.com/2014/04/cooking-with-dead-celebrities.html.

A similar newer cookbook dedicated to the king of bling, the rhinestone-studded pianist who was known for his candelabra, charisma and dazzle — who was also something of an amateur chef whose recipes were as over-the-top as his clothes. Liberace reportedly loved to cook for his friends (and for his mother), and at one point, he even owned a restaurant. I am referring to the late pianist known as Liberace. Authors Michael and Karan Feder more recently compiled more than 80 of Liberace's favorite recipes in their cookbook entitled "Joy of Liberace: Retro Recipes from America's Kitschiest Kitchen" which was documented by NPR at https://www.npr.org/2007/05/05/9969113/retro-cooking-with-the-king-of-bling and from that cookbook, I do recommend that you consider what that cookbook titled "Liberace's Sticky Buns" as an easy and tasty dessert. I shared that recipe in my own 2014 blog post.

The Vintage Recipe Project
https://vintagerecipeproject.com/

Nevertheless, without your mother's old recipe files, it becomes a bit tougher to find some of those old vintage recipes. But I discovered an interesting website called "Vintage Recipe Project" https://vintagerecipeproject.com/ which the site's owner Billie refers to as a "a labor of love dedicated to preserving and sharing the culinary history of our past" is the kind of website that has some of these vintage recipes. I have found a number of what I might describe as vintage recipes from the nineteen fifties, nineteen sixties and nineteen seventies there, and maybe some your own mother never made for you, but you might wish to try.

There are, of course, various cookbooks such as various Junior League Cookbooks from different parts of the country, and many people discover those publications in used bookstores, at estate sales, yard sales which may also contain some of these vintage recipes. However, note that more than a few older recipes may require some adaptations to work the twenty-first century. Some ingredients called for may no longer exist, or they might be called something different.

Discovering Some Unique Vintage Ingredients in Twenty-first Century Cooking

For example, some older vintage recipes call for "Oleo" which is an old-fashioned term for a what was more commonly referred to as margarine, which was kind of synthetic butter-like product made from hydrogenated vegetable oils [and most people find that switching to regular butter in those older recipes works just fine]. Margarine was later found to contribute towards heart disease and so it might make baking easier, it might also help to kill you. Other vintage recipes have slightly more exotic vintage ingredients such as what is called "citron" which I learned was a form of candied citrus fruit peels (oranges, lemons, limes, grapefruits) which are sometimes found in certain vintage recipes. Discovering those underlying ingredients can sometimes be an interesting journey by itself.

While many older recipes likely needed to be remade in order to reduce unhealthy components like hydrogenated fat, fats in general, as well as added sugars, and salt while increasing beneficial ingredients including more fiber, lower-carb fruits, and more whole vegetables, that's not to say that vintage recipes do not have a place in a rounded dietary menu, just that they need to be more balanced. 

Think of successful celebrity chef and cookbook authors like Rocco DiSpirito who wrote several "Now Eat This!" cookbooks as a way to try and make more traditional comfort foods a bit more healthy. Indeed, an entire cookbook series known as "Cook This, Not That" also exists to accomplish the same. And making older recipes healthier often involves substituting fattening and salty creamed soups such as cream of chicken soup or cream of mushroom soup for healthier alternatives including home-made varieties (which the cook can control the ingredients which go into those fattening creamy soups which often double as gravies used in things like home-made chicken pot pie, for example).

I will leave the journey of discovery up to you, my reader. Just know that some bloggers have made a personal mission to share vintage recipes with the world, and that may be an excellent place to begin.