The whole family gathered around a large table, set against a backdrop of green mountain slopes and the sparkling blue sea, enjoying wonderful homemade food just like mom makes – this is exactly how one imagines life on the Italian coast. This is what the successful and popular Italian chef Gennaro Contaldo embodies with his cookbook Passione. He grew up on the Amalfi Coast in southern Italy, where he loved fishing, foraging for herbs, mushrooms, and all sorts of other ingredients, from which his father initially created delicious dishes. Gennaro Contaldo later took up the cooking spoon from him and now celebrates authentic Italian cuisine in Passione, which offers so much more than spaghetti Bolognese, lasagna, or pizza. From soups to pasta, polenta, risotto, and gnocchi, as well as fish and seafood, meat, game, and poultry, not to mention vegetables and snacks.