Pranzo: Sicilian(ish) Recipes & Stories
Pranzo by Guy Mirabella, Hardie Grant Books, RRP $70.
By Guy Mirabella
If you haven’t heard of Guy Mirabella, he’s been incredibly influential across the ditch in the food and cookbook space. A celebrated designer, he created books for Australian culinary icons like Stephanie Alexander, Christine Manfield, and Charmaine Solomon. But in 1999, after winning awards and acclaim for his design work, he took a dramatic career turn, stepping into the kitchen of the legendary Ronnie di Stasio in St Kilda. From there, he went on to own his own place on the Mornington Peninsula, Shop Ate Cafe & Store, where he mentored its new owners before finally retiring from the kitchen in 2022.
Over the years, Mirabella has authored several cookbooks, including Hungry, Eat Ate, and Mirabella Food, but it’s been a while since we’ve heard from him. That changes now with his new book, Pranzo—a deeply personal collection of food and reminiscences that celebrate his Sicilian roots and rural upbringing.
Unusually tall and slim in format, Pranzo is a visual and culinary feast, reflecting Mirabella’s distinctive creative eye. He declares in the book, “I am a home cook with no chef credentials,” explaining that the recipes are for “the food I grew up eating and (for) those prepared at my cafe.” The title Pranzo—meaning “lunch” in Italian—recalls the call to the table he heard growing up: pranzo è pronto, mangia bello, mangia bella, mangia angelo alla mia tavola. While it may mean lunch, the book’s recipes suit many parts of the day, from hearty pastas and slow-cooked meats to delicate cakes and vegetable-forward dishes.
Born out of the pandemic lockdowns—when Mirabella found himself sharing simple, rustic recipes on Instagram—the book is structured around five chapters, four of which follow the seasons, plus a fifth called ‘Salute’. The latter is a fundamentals section featuring essential recipes for tomatoes, herbs, and fresh pasta from scratch.
Summer bursts with bright, fresh flavours—pasta with sardines, gnocchi with roasted tomatoes, crisp salads, and fruit-laden desserts (the Passionfruit and Coconut Cake is particularly tempting). Autumn leans into deeper, richer dishes like mushroom ragù casarecce, mezzo rigatoni with broad beans, ricotta and zucchini, and pappardelle with almonds. There are also bakes and braises, an amazing silverbeet and taleggio crostata, and delicate hazelnut and orange biscotti. Winter, as expected, is robust and warming, featuring classics like lasagne, ragù, roast pork belly with fennel, and Giuseppe’s confit duck.
The design and photography—mostly by Mirabella himself—are stunning, exuding his singular creative talent. Pranzo isn’t just a cookbook; it’s a beautifully crafted homage to food, family, and memory, wrapped up in Mirabella’s signature artistic style.
