‘Pasta Queen’ food lover reveals dramatic journey to chef, mom and author

A woman known on social media as the “Pasta Queen” revealed to Fox News Digital why she’s so passionate about making and serving Italian food to her friends and family today.  

Nadia Caterina Munno, a Florida chef, mom and cookbook author, was born and raised in Rome, Italy, by a family who taught her how to make pasta from a young age, she said. 

In a Zoom interview, Munno detailed those experiences — and shared why she rejected some of those early traditions for a period of time as a teenager before finally reclaiming them as an adult and making them her own. (See the video at the top of this article.)

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With a lineage of pasta makers dating back to the 1800s, she said she was often taken as a child to her family’s wheat farm for harvesting. 

“We would pick tomatoes, fruits, potatoes, zucchini, eggplants, broccoli — all sorts of different and great basic foods of the Mediterranean diet,” she said.

In her new book, “The Pasta Queen: The Art of Italian Cooking,” she describes some of those experiences as among her “fondest memories.”

“I can still vividly smell the richness and earthiness of the soil, my beloved ‘dirt,’” she writes.

She told Fox News Digital that as she grew into a teenager, that changed for a while.

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“I remember having to go to the countryside with my grandparents — and it became uncool with my friends,” she said. 

So, when she was just 18, she moved to London. She studied English to pursue a career in marketing and PR – which seemed exciting to her at the time.

“I can still vividly smell the richness and earthiness of the soil, my beloved ‘dirt.'”

But that all changed once she had children. 

“It felt like an organic fall back to what I really loved, which was being motherly and nurturing, preparing a great meal for the people that I love,” she told Fox News Digital.  

Munno began pursuing cooking in her mid-30s.

In 2020, the “Pasta Queen” was born when Munno began posting content on social media.

Today, she has over 4.8 million Instagram followers. Her first cookbook, “The Pasta Queen: A Just Gorgeous Cookbook,” was a New York Times bestseller. 

Now she’s out with “The Pasta Queen: The Art of Italian Cooking.”

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“I really wanted to showcase what an Italian actually eats from a very Italian perspective,” she said.

Among other points in her new book, she shares the importance of ingredients, including extra-virgin olive oil, avocado oil, vinegar, seasonings, herbs and alliums, dried fruit, bread, meats, cheeses, tomatoes, wine — and yes, pasta, grains and legumes.

She pointed out how much processed food Americans eat compared to residents of Italy.

“What I see in the U.S. — this doesn’t happen in Europe,” she said, in terms of mass-market promotion of fast foods. 

Although Munno said she’s had fast food on occasion and thoroughly enjoys it, it’s “so addictive.”

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She said, “In Italy, you wouldn’t have that because, culturally, we don’t go out — we take walks to the farmer’s market. That’s what we do and it’s culturally promoted that way.”

Her new cookbook is filled with details about various dishes made in the Italian culture that don’t involve pasta. 

She said one of her favorite recipes in the book is a seafood salad — something she’s never been able to find in the U.S. that’s made exactly like southern Italians do. 

“The seafood salad that I have laid out in my new cookbook is absolutely mind-blowing,” she said. 

“Christmas Eve would not be complete without insalata di mare on the table.”

In her book, she says that “for me, Christmas Eve would not be complete without insalata di mare on the table. This rich seafood salad is not only a special holiday meal but also enjoyed throughout the summer.”

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Some other hints: it features octopus, cuttlefish, squid, shrimp and mussels — plus lemon and extra-virgin olive oil. 

Other dishes included in the new book include her Carpaccio di Manzo (beef carpaccio) and Pollo al Marsala (chicken Marsala), plus her Fried Peppers and Patate Arrosto (roasted potatoes). 

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The book contains more than 100 recipes all told.

Munno has a TV series on Prime Video which highlights some of her cuisine and unique ingredients.