There’s a gorge between what we consider Italian-American food and the cucina italiana that we know today, but there’s a throughline that connects the sauces and stews of the casalinghe of the old world and the red-sauce kitchens of the Little Italys throughout the United States. This bridge runs through the famous cookbooks that have influenced American kitchens since the Italians first set foot on Ellis Island.

Early iterations of Italian-American food — think Philly cheesesteaks and muffaletta sandwiches — were inventions of those working-class immigrants who melded the flavors of Italy with the ingenuity required to establish new lives on the other side of the Atlantic. But Italian food in its most unaltered form was introduced to the mainstream later, after World War II, and many dishes slowly became widely recognizable.