You Should Totally Buy Luca’s Book (Giveaway!!!!)

Last year, I undertook an epic journey through Hell and Buffalo, Texas to see my college roommate. The beginning of this year, I flew to Virginia to see her again and celebrate her birthday. (One of the plane’s engines died over Little Rock. Why can’t it ever be an uneventful journey to see her?)

Look how cute we are!

She’s a huge MasterChef fan, and an even bigger fan of Season 4’s winner Luca Manfe, so she was beyond excited when her husband arranged to have Luca make dinner for her and a few friends. (He can make dinner for you too. Here’s his website.)

I could write numerous blog posts about that dinner. The food was amazing. The setting was gorgeous. Luca was funny and charming. His beautiful wife, Cate, was incredibly kind, and at one point left me in awe with her delicate, respectful, quiet, and yet firm defense of her Christian faith. (Seriously, she blew me away. I want to be her when I grow up.)

But that’s not the point of this post.

A few weeks ago, Luca released his new cookbook My Italian Kitchen. I sent him a Facebook message (yeah, we’re “friends” now. I’m cool like that.) and asked how I could get an autographed copy to donate to a local JRA fundraiser. I wanted to buy it, I just wanted him to sign it. He told me “Don’t be ridiculous. Let me send you one.”

And he did!

I carefully glanced through it, and quickly decided that I needed one for myself. I got mine last week, and I’m in love. I’ll admit up front that I’m not an Italian cook. My idea of Italian cooking is opening a jar of Prego. (Sorry, Luca!) I just wasn’t raised that way. I can make all kind of Mexican food like a pro, but there weren’t that many Italian cooks in small town South Texas.

I love this book. (Did I say that already?) It makes me able to pretend to know how to cook like this, and be able to convince other people that I can too. The genius of this book is in the writing (and in the recipes!) There are thousands of cook books out there, but this one is written as if Luca were standing in your kitchen and explaining it to you himself. It’s friendly and easy-going, and takes most of the fear out of cooking Italian for me.

So far, I’ve made his basic pasta recipe (easy peasy!) and his steak with vanilla sauce (oh my holy goodness!) I don’t know how many hours I’ve spent drooling over the food porn that is My Italian Kitchen, but it’s a lot.

I decided that I couldn’t keep this to myself, so I’m giving a copy away. Usually when I give away books, the publisher or the author gives me a promotional copy. Not this time. I didn’t even ask. (He’d already given me one for the fundraiser anyway.) I like it so much that I’m buying the giveaway copy myself! (See? That’s love right there.)

If you want to win one, leave me a comment and tell me why you love Luca (or better yet, why you’re a Cate Manfe fan!), your favorite Italian dish, or what scares you about cooking Italian. You have from now until Friday at Midnight to enter. I’ll pick a random winner on Saturday!

Hooray!!!!! It’s a cook book giveaway!!!

If you don’t win, you should absolutely buy this book! It’s worth it.

Also, go visit my friend Scottie’s DIY website and see how she’s so much more than a pretty face. She’s a genius!!!