About the Book

“Antonia Isola” was the pen name of Mabel Earl McGinnis. Her Simple Italian Cookery appeared in 1912, when Italian food in America still needed introducing rather than assuming.

The book's method is quiet and effective: it gives each dish in English and then in Italian — Beef Soup Stock (Brodo di Carne), Vegetable Chowder (Minestrone alla Milanese) — so the reader learns the name along with the dish. It runs from soups through macaroni and other pastes, rice, sauces, eggs, fish, vegetables, meats and salads to desserts.

This edition is built from professionally keyed text, checked against the page scans.

This site reproduces the complete text of the original 1912 edition, digitized page by page from the original printing. The book is in the public domain.