A Bite-Sized History of Italy : Gastronomic Tales of the Roman Empire, Renaissance, and Republic

While Italy has existed as a nation-state only since 1861, a distinctly Italian identity had been simmering for centuries, nourished by a shared culinary culture. From the dormice and garum of the Roman Empire to the heresy of pineapple pizza, A Bite-Sized History of Italy traces this legacy, offering a delicious romp through millennia of culinary tradition and transformation.

Author Danielle Callegari, associate professor at Dartmouth and co-host of the Gola podcast, guides readers on a spirited tour through the kitchens, vineyards, city squares, and coastal ports of the iconic peninsula, offering an intimate portrait of a place so famous for its food it nearly defies interrogation—even as it might be said that food is the very reason for its existence.

With boundless energy and a fearless palate, Callegari explores beloved staples—pizza, pasta, parmigiano—alongside the unsung flavors that shaped Italian identity: legumes, wild herbs, game birds, spices, and the contributions of Jewish and other minority communities. She reveals how Italy’s rise as Europe’s gastronomic heart is rooted in religious customs, class dynamics, and the echoes of empire, as well as how food became a language of both unity and division.

Through stories of what was eaten, and by whom, this latest addition to The New Press’s standout Bite-Sized series, A Bite-Sized History of Italy offers a glimpse of the making of Italy itself—a nation defined, defended, and devoured around the table.