Hi there, happy 2026 and thrilled to share our first episode of the year with you—a super fun chat recorded over beer, wine, and snacks in Rome. But first:
📕 What I’m Reading
A wonderful, thoughtful piece from cookbook author Emiko Davies on “Why we need cookbooks more than ever,” especially in the age of prolific AI usage. Read it here. Emiko shares a lovely list of “cookbooks that transport” that’s worth bookmarking, and she links to an older piece on “Antifascist Pasta” that’s a topic in this week’s show as well.
🎧 What I’m Listening To
OK, I haven’t listened to it yet but IACP just launched a new podcast, “The Hot Plate,” and their first guest is friend-of-Salt+Spine Matt Rodbard. Find the episode here.
🧑🍳 What I’m Cooking
On the menu tonight was Deb Perelman’s ricotta and spinach gnudi, which my kids were more than thrilled to help mix, squish, and roll. Recipe
🎙️ The Interview
Katie Parla | #177
Ed Anderson
You first heard Katie Parla on our show a couple years ago when we recorded a live episode at Omnivore Books (hi Celia!) in San Francisco to discuss her then-newest cookbook, Food of the Italian Islands. [Listen to that chat here.]
Now, Katie’s back with her 11th cookbook and it’s a deep-dive into Roman history and cuisine. Born in New Jersey, Katie has called Rome home for more than two decades and she’s been obsessed with uncovering the city’s culinary—and non-culinary—history the whole time. She’s written culinary guides, hosted TV shows and podcasts, showed folks like Stanley Tucci and Andrew Zimmern where to eat in Rome, and built a tour company.
This new book distills much of what she’s researched—and ate—into a 350+ page opus titled Rome: A Culinary History, Cookbook, and Field Guide to Flavors that Built a City. Part guide book, part history book, part cookbook—this is a love letter to the city that’s been feeding people for over 2,700 years.
Late last year, I met up with Katie for an evening tour of Trastevere. What struck me most about our conversation is how Katie approaches Roman food as not a static collection of recipes, but very much a living and evolving story that reflects everything the city has been through: ancient empire, Renaissance opulence, cucina povera, Jewish ghetto traditions, modern immigration, and more.
From Rome
“I felt it was the right moment to … write something that does justice to the richness, messiness, and complexity of Rome’s food culture. Food is the narrative thread but the real subject is Rome itself—enduring, chaotic, and always hungry.”
–Katie Parla
▶️ In this episode, we discuss:
The Reductive Nature of “Cucina Povera”
The “Fifth Quarter” and Offal Recipes
Il Talismano and the Legacy of Ada Boni
The Trapizzino Revolution
Italy’s Craft Beer Scene (and the much-older Wine Scene, too)
The Business of Cookbooks
and more!
I had so much fun eating, drinking, and chatting with Katie—I hope you enjoy!
📗 The Cookbook
Rome: A Culinary History, Cookbook, and Field Guide to the Flavors that Built a City
By Katie Parla • Photos by Ed Anderson
From Italy’s leading culinary voice and New York Times bestselling author Katie Parla, Rome offers a sweeping portrait of the city’s food culture, past and present. Drawing on two decades of research, eating, and storytelling in the Italian capital, Parla shows how the Roman table has evolved from the Iron Age to today and why it remains one of the world’s most compelling.
KatieParla.com
Rome launches with a thorough history through a culinary lens, beginning with its murky Iron Age origins, tracing the impact of conquests through the Roman Republic to the expansion of trade routes during the Empire and a scrappy period through the Middle Ages to ready Rome for its revival into the Renaissance era. Parla covers the political, societal, and economic shifts of the 18th and 19th centuries, from Napoleon to Mussolini and the post-war boom that introduced the “dolce vita” lifestyle, illustrating how people ate through the eras to bring readers into the mindset of present-day Rome.
The book contains over 110 recipes, drawn from experts (home cooks, restaurant pros, and food artisans alike) and is organized with a thematic approach: fried snacks and starters; pasta and soup; fish, meat and offal; vegetables, salads and sides; pizza and breads; and desserts. While the city’s beloved supplì, cacio e pepe, and maritozzi traditions are well represented, Parla finds opportunities to showcase a wider swath of Rome’s dining culture with recipes such as a hearty fettuccine al sugo di coda oxtail pasta and a warming minestra di broccoli e arzilla, or romanesco and broccoli soup.
KatieParla.com
More than a mere cookbook, Rome contains in-depth features that range from reflections on the fetishization of the cucina povera to the rise of the city’s urban dairy trade. An appendix highlights the forces shaping Rome’s drinking culture, spanning the categories of water, wine, craft beer and cocktails, followed by Parla’s essential recommendations to eating, drinking, and shopping in Rome today. Accompanied by playful illustrations and custom maps by designer Ian Dingman, the stories and ingredients of the Eternal City are brought to life in Rome with expressive photography by Ed Anderson.
This week, paid Substack subscribers will receive two featured recipes from Katie Parla’s Rome: the Pollo alla Cacciatora along with the Trapizzini dough you could stuff it into, if that’s your thing! (It should be your thing.)
Salt + Spine is supported by listeners like you! For this week’s recipes—plus exclusive content and access to hundreds of other featured recipes from your favorite cookbook authors—become a paid subscriber today.
Discussion about this episode
Salt & Spine
We tell the compelling stories behind cookbooks you won't get anywhere else. Featuring interviews with leading authors, we explore the art and craft of cookbooks, looking at both new and vintage cookbooks and the inspirations behind them … the compelling people who create them … and their impact on home cooks and the culinary world.
We tell the compelling stories behind cookbooks you won't get anywhere else. Featuring interviews with leading authors, we explore the art and craft of cookbooks, looking at both new and vintage cookbooks and the inspirations behind them … the compelling people who create them … and their impact on home cooks and the culinary world.
