Can a recipe change your life? A quest for an authentic dish reveals a mythic love story and age-old culinary secrets. James Beard Award-winning author Laura Schenone undertakes a quest to retrieve her great grandmother's ravioli recipe, reuniting with relatives as she goes. In lyrical prose and delicious recipes, Schenone takes the reader on an unforgettable journey from the grit of New Jersey's industrial wastelands and the fast-paced disposable culture of its suburbs to the dramatically beautiful coast of Liguria―the family's homeland―with its pesto, smoked chestnuts, torte, and, most beloved of all, ravioli, the food of celebration and happiness. Schenone discovers the persistent importance of place, while offering a perceptive voice on immigration and ethnicity in its twilight. Along the way, she gives us the comedies and foibles of family life, a story of love and loss, a deeper understanding of the bonds between parents and children, and the mysteries of pasta, rolled into a perfect circle of gossamer dough. A treat for anyone who's Italian American, and if you're not, when you finish this book, you'll wish you were. -- Adriana Trigiani, New York Times bestselling author of the Big Stone Gap series and Lucia, Lucia A triumph of culinary sleuthing that takes award-winning Laura Schenone deep into the interior of her ancestral Liguria. -- Louise DeSalvo, author of Crazy in the Kitchen Every page offers an embrace; this is a book to be read a gusto . -- Regina Barreca, author of Don't Tell Mama!: The Penguin Book of Italian American Writing Laura Schenone's search for food and family in The Lost Ravioli Recipes is a journey I'm very glad I took. -- Joe Mantegna Throughout this delightful book, she serves the reader a memorable feast of ravioli and revelations. -- Maria Laurino, author of Were You Always an Italian? Laura Schenone is the author of the James Beard Award–winning A Thousand Years Over a Hot Stove and The Lost Ravioli Recipes of Hoboken . She lives in New Jersey with her family and dog Lily.