I’ve been fascinated by Italian cuisine ever since I was a little girl. I remember sitting at the kitchen table, watching my Sicilian-American grandmother stir a big pot filled to the brim with simmering, bright red tomato sauce. She would be there all day, wooden spoon in hand, stirring that pot. The whole house would smell of onion, garlic and basil – surrounded by a sweet tomato aroma.

Even as a child I realized that there was something different about my grandmother. She didn’t bake chocolate chip cookies or knit sweaters like the typical “American” grandmother. That’s when I started thinking...where did my grandmother come from?

One day while in high school, my curiosity got the best of me. I held my grandmother hostage in the kitchen for two hours and made her show me how to make her tomato sauce. I wrote down what she said word for word, despite her reminding me repeatedly “there aren’t any exact measurements. You just have to taste it and look at it.” I then made her explain to me our entire family tree, half of which was still somewhere in Sicily. At the end I had a giant piece of paper full of scribbles and a lot of Italian names.

Today I cherish the fact that I have this recipe not just because its tastes good, but because I know that my Sicilian ancestors ate the very same thing. We can time travel through food. Isn’t that amazing?

I’ve gathered these recipes from Italian friends, everyday people from all walks of life. These aren’t the dishes that you’ll find in Italian restaurants or in cooking magazines. These are the dishes that you’ll find by peeking through Italian windows – by time travelling inside Italian kitchens.

Buon appetito.