In “Big Flavors From Italian America,” the new cookbook from Cook’s Country magazine, you get a healthy dose of history along with all the great recipes. There are countless cookbooks on Italian cooking, but this one focuses on how the Italian immigrants who settled in our country adapted dishes from their homeland.

Tucker Shaw, editor in chief of Cook’s Country, writes in the book that between 1880 and 1910 more than 5 million people immigrated to the United States from Italy. Money was tight for most of these immigrants so they adapted recipes to American ingredients and their tastes gradually evolved.