The recipes in her most recent cookbook, "Ciao Italia: Family Classics," are based on the three women Mary Ann Esposito admires most: her grandmothers and her mother. Her mother, Louise Saporito, a dietician, was "just an amazing person," she said.

A native of New York, Esposito said she learned to cook Italian food from her mother, and her grandmothers: Maria Assunta Saporito, a butcher from Sicily; and Anna Galasso, a Neapolitan. The lessons she learned from the trio of home cooks have been shared with thousands through 26 years of Esposito's PBS cooking show, "Ciao Italia," and her array of cookbooks.