The smell of basil, oregano, and tomato bubbling on the stove are the memories of Italian food that Dr. Jill Biden has fondly described over the years. On Sundays, her parents and sisters piled into a station wagon and drove from Pennsylvania to New Jersey to feast on her Italian family’s cooking. Together, they filled their bellies with her grandmother’s homemade pasta and her grandfather’s toasted Italian bread.

“I could never get enough of the tastes and smells,” she wrote in a recent memoir, recalling the importance of the Giacoppa family meals and a set table. (Jill’s family name “Jacobs” was shortened from Giacoppa when her great-grandfather arrived at Ellis Island from Italy.)