Pizza for Your Soul: My Sicilian Family Recipes

TikTok creator Mandreucci (better known as “Sally Slices”) debuts with a personable but uneven collection of easy Italian fare, drawn especially from his nonna’s home cooking. He covers the basics—including a classic marinara sauce and simple spaghetti with olive oil and garlic—as well as a few more complex dishes, like pasta forno (which his father always made for family picnics) and stuffed artichoke. Despite the title, there’s only one pizza recipe on offer here, a replication of the stuffed-crust pie Mandreucci made on the show Pizza Wars, and it calls for any store-bought crust. It’s perhaps understandable that Mandreucci chooses not to give away the secret recipe that has made his family’s Marcello’s Pizza Grill in Hamilton Square, N.J., a destination, but this solution feels like a cop out. The collection ends with a handful of earnest essays reflecting on the author’s life, his struggles to stay positive in the face of depression, and his whole-hearted belief in the American Dream. Mandreucci’s voice comes through, but the recipes themselves are uninspired. This is for die-hard fans only. (Feb.)