Cookbook Review: Mama Tried: Traditional Italian Cooking for the Screwed, Crude, Vegan, and Tattooed

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Italian food + tattoo art = Cecilia Granata’s Mama Tried. Granata, an Italian-American tattoo artist and freelance illustrator, presents her favorite recipes for home-cooked Italian food, including the delightfully named Happy Fart Burger, or Hamburger Scoreggione di Fagioli.

I love that Granata states upfront that she’s unwilling to do any hand-holding, explaining that Italians are used to eyeballing ingredients and adjusting recipes to their taste and what they have on hand. “…don’t be surprised if I ask you to use your intuition to finish making your dinner.” I felt a bit more powerful than usual as I made my own decisions in the kitchen, guided by suggestions from Mama Tried.

Shown below are the seitan scallops with lemon and wine sauce that I paired with yellow peppers with pine nuts and raisins and a side salad. Yum!

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P.S. Check out this adorable trailer for this bad-ass book, which stars Granata herself: