“I have been cooking my whole life,” says Viola Buitoni. “I come from a food family—Italy by Ingredient is a story of a lifestyle.” Born in Rome and raised in the Umbrian countryside, on a fifteenth-century former convent surrounded by an olive grove and grazing sheep that made pecorino, Buitoni was weaned on extra-virgin olive oil and Parmigiano Reggiano. She writes, “I first spooned ricotta into my mouth straight out of the warm whey in which the local shepherd had just cooked it.”

And yes, Viola Buitoni is a Buitoni, like the pasta. She’s the sixth generation of an Italian family who mechanized the production and distribution of pasta (Buitoni is now owned by Nestle).