A Review: by Heart: Recipes to Hold Near and Dear by Hailee Catalano

I’m not even sure where I heard or read about this cookbook. It had to be on a “best of 2025” list. Regardless, I want to share about this book today. It deserves to be on a “best of” list for certain.

About the book:

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

Learn to make elevated, professional-quality meals in your own kitchen with over 100 creative, seasonal recipes from Hailee Catalano

Growing up cooking the Sunday gravy, meatballs, and pasta alongside her Italian American grandmother, Hailee Catalano developed a huge passion for food. This passion led her to the Culinary Institute of America, and then to cooking in restaurants. But somewhere along the way, Hailee started to miss the home cooking that made her fall in love with food in the first place. Restaurants made it seem like beautifully made food was too difficult to recreate at home.

In By Heart, she presents over 100 restaurant-quality recipes designed to be made in your home kitchen. You’ll find seasonal pastas (Pasta alla Norcina with Roasted Squash), veggie-forward recipes designed to make the most of your CSA box (Caponata with Dried Cherries and Green Olives), simple meat dishes (Roast Chicken with Red Wine Vinegar and Honey) breads (Hearty Seeded Rye Bread), butters (Calabrian Chile Honey Butter), condiments (Chicago-Style Fennel Giardiniera), perfect beach sandwiches (Brie and Butter Sandwich with Shallot-y Frisée), simple sweets (Malted Milk Butter Cookies), and so much more.

Inspired by her professional training and love of seasonal cooking, Hailee includes details on how to keep a calm kitchen, navigate a farmers market, make your own broths and the perfect sourdough loaf, and plan out a Friday Night Dinner menu. Carefully crafted from the heart, this is a book you’ll return to again and again. (Taken from her website.)

About the author:

Hailee Catalano is a trained chef, former restaurant cook, and recipe developer. Now living with her partner, Chuck, and her dog, Gus, in New Jersey, she takes inspiration from her time in restaurants, her midwestern upbringing, her Italian American heritage, and her love of seasonal produce to create fun and fresh recipes for home cooks. (Taken from Penguin Random House.)

Check out her website for more about Hailee, her book, and her recipes.

What I thought…

I approached this book differently than I normally do. I usually read from cover to cover and then pick out a few recipes that sound interesting. I started reading the intro/about section but then I just started skimming the recipes. I made the first one before I even really read much of the book. While I didn’t make her MEC (Mortadella, Egg and Cheese) Sandwich (251), I did make the Jammy Onion-Tomato Spread that is a must condiment for this sandwich. (I used it on my Woven Bacon Sandwich with Onion Jam for a recent Cook the Books post.) I would love to make that sandwich because that Jammy Onion-Tomato Spread is remarkable.

I then tried the Halibut Fines Herbes (149). I rarely cook seafood but I did have some halibut steaks in the freezer that needed used. This recipe was simple and fast. It was easy enough for a quick weeknight meal and it was delicious enough that we are still raving about it.

I paired the halibut with her Little Gem Salad with Garlicky White Bean Spread (83). While I thought it was a bit weird to put the salad on top of a bean spread, it worked well. I would totally make this salad again and I would totally use that bean spread for a dip.

So, after I made these three recipes, I delved into the book proper. As the blurb states, this is a book of beloved recipes that Catalano elevates to cheffy restaurant worthy ones. Sometimes chef-authored cookbooks can get a bit out-of-reach, but she keeps it real and simple. The end results look and taste very elevated and professional!

As I found with the MEC and the Little Gem Salad, there are very worthy dips and spread within the main recipes. She expounds on my findings:

This is a bit of a sneaky book: There are quite a few recipes within recipes, which makes room for fun mixing and matching. Use the sauce from the Spanish Zucchini Tortilla (page 110) on the BL Double T (page 255) in place of the toum for something a bit less garlicky and a touch more spiced. Sprinkle the rye crunchies from the Radicchio and Apple Salad with Rye Crunchies (page 76) onto your morning scrambled eggs for a nice textural component. Use the peach vinaigrette from the Charred Sweet Potatoes with Chunky Peach Vinaigrette (page 114) to bring simple grilled chicken thighs to a new, summery level. (16)

She goes on to talk about other combos with breads, crackers and spreads. (She does not mention that bean dip or onion jam though so I’m glad I am bringing those to your attention.)

Her “Equipment Essentials” section suggests a lot of chef staples including sharp knives, the “side towel,” and quart containers. From “Packing Your Pantry for Success,” she points out the staples but keeps it to your own preferences. It’s not a prescriptive list which I appreciated. There’s some Farmers Market notes and a few menus (which you know I love) before we get to the recipes. 

The sections in the book are not the usually appetizers, entrées, desserts, etc. Hers are more inventive: Pickles, Condiments, and Dips; Three Crunchy Snacks; Salads: Some Lights, Some Heavy; A Quick Broth Intermission; Vegetables: From Everyday to CSA; Seasonal Pastas; Seafood: From the Lake to the Shore; A Few Meat Dishes; Pizza Night; Inspired by Tina: Italian American Favorites; Sourdough: A Crash Course; Breads and Butters; Fun Things Between Bread; and Sharable Sweets.

I do want to explain the Inspired by Tina section. Tina was her grandmother and first showed her “the joy of bringing people together with food” (187). The entire section is devoted to Tina’s recipes. You can plan an entire menu from this section alone, everything from an appetizer, salad, main, to desserts. My suggestion: Artichoke Gratin (198), Vinegary Iceberg Salad (194), Tina’s Chicken Bake (208), and Olive Oil Pineapple Upside-Down Cake (212). 

I loved this book and would keep it checked out of the library indefinitely. (I’m pretty sure I owe a fine now.) 

I’m linking up with Foodies Read.