Italian American Forever

Alex Guarnaschelli is a French-trained chef, a celebrity chef, a short-order-mom chef…and she’s also an Italian American chef. Her famous cookbook-editor mom’s heritage was Sicilian (which Alex says made her slightly more dangerous); and her dad’s people are from Bari. She pledged allegiance to her father’s marinara on weekdays and her mom’s on the weekend and grew up eating at many of the red-checked tablecloth trattorias in New York City—and she still shops for fresh mozz and crunchy biscotti in the specialty stores and bakeries in Little Italy. For Alex, this isn’t special occasion eating—this is life. She devotes the entirety of Italian American Forever to the Italian American “greats,” from Carmella Soprano’s Lasagna (yes, that Carmella Soprano!) to Whole Chicken alla Diavola, Pork Chop Scampi, and Stuffed Artichokes so big and bursting that they’re a main course unto themselves. From simple weeknight suppers to slowly simmered Su