ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

How much lasagna can one person eat in six months? A lot, it turns out. But we couldn’t have come close to finishing this book without all of the people who pitched in ideas, recipes, and advice along the way, or without the people who bravely lent their stomachs to the cause throughout a long year of baked pasta experimentation.

So much of the heart and soul of this book comes from the recipes of Grace Parisi, who spent hours chatting over coffee and spitballing crazy ideas over the phone with me, evolving them into even better ideas in her kitchen. Grace is the genius who taught us that if you have a skillet, some frozen ravioli, and half an hour, you can turn it into lasagna.

We were also lucky enough to publish guest recipes from a few contributors and friends of TASTE, including Mark Ladner, Michael Solomonov, Hannah Giorgis, Cathy Erway, and Allison Robicelli.

Thanks to the keen-eyed photographer duo Dylan James Ho + Jeni Afuso, who kept the photo studio alight with good humor and plenty of Frank Ocean. Thanks to Vivian Lui, who cooked and styled all of the food that made it into the photos in this book (cheese pulls and all), and to Nidia Cueva and PropLink for setting us up with all of the enamel pans, checked tablecloths, and grandmotherly dishes of our dreams.

In addition to the photos we shot at PropLink, Dylan and Jeni and I spent a sunny October afternoon in a few of Los Angeles’s most old-school Italian institutions. Dolce Vita, Casa Bianca, and Roma Market were incredibly welcoming to us, and Rosario from Roma Market kept us well-fed with his famous pink paper-wrapped sandwiches. (If you’re ever in Pasadena with a bit of real estate in your stomach, “The Sandwich” is non-negotiable.)

Thanks to Raquel Pelzel, our fearless editor at Clarkson Potter, who infused an incredible amount of her own creativity, energy, and home cooking wisdom into this book. Thanks to Jen Wang, Stephanie Huntwork, and Marysarah Quinn for their discerning art direction and patience when we asked questions like, “Can we make this font more lasagna-y?” Thanks to David Hawk, Allison Renzulli, Windy Dorresteyn, and the publicity and marketing team at Clarkson Potter for helping us tell the world about this book.

Thanks to Lorena Jones, Doris Cooper, Aaron Wehner, and Talia Baiocchi for all of the support they’ve given the TASTE team (Matt Rodbard, Tatiana Bautista, and me) as this book came together.

—Anna Hezel and the editors of TASTE