This rustic tofu cacciatore gets a nonna’s stamp of approval
Giuseppe Federici has plenty of things to be proud of: He’s got hundreds of thousands of followers on social media, he runs marathons, and his debut cookbook is now out in North America. What is he proudest about? “That I wrote the cookbook while my grandparents were still around,” the Londoner tells me on a Zoom call. “I mean, it’s an achievement to write a cookbook, let alone with your 85-year-old grandmother.”
In fact, his grandmother, Marianna Sgarito, is so central to the project that he named the cookbook “Cooking With Nonna.” And just as in so many of his TikToks and Instagram reels, she’s all over the pages, rolling and cutting pasta, frying arancini and spooning into cacciatore alongside him. As a former restaurateur, she’s got serious cooking chops, and Federici, 27, has wisely tapped into her knowledge for his take on classic Italian recipes.
These recipes are plant-based, meaning that the cacciatore is made with tofu instead of chicken, and the arancini are rolled in a flour batter rather than egg before breading. But what might be surprising is just how welcoming his nonna has been to such modifications. “In our culture, there’s such a generational gap between the older and the younger, and everyone just assumes the older generation is so ignorant about modern techniques and so set in their ways,” he says. “But it’s so beautiful how we’ve come together, and how she’s done such an incredible job of making all of her recipes plant based.”
Federici started making the switch to plant-based eating about eight years ago, after his father got a cancer diagnosis. Federici researched the health benefits of a vegan diet and eventually convinced his sister and both parents to make the move, too. (His father’s cancer is in remission.) He wasn’t too worried about the change causing him to lose touch with the foods of his heritage, mostly because Italian cooking is so vegetable-forward anyway.
When he first told his nonna that he wanted to work on veganizing her classic recipes together, “Her reaction was similar to everything she says, which is ‘Nice, nice, very nice.’” She might not have exactly understood the scope of the proposal at first, but soon enough, she was fully on board, making meatballs with store-bought “mince” and lasagna with just vegetables. “She was actually very receptive to it, which is so nice when you consider that obviously that generation would usually be quite, well, closed off to that sort of thing.”
Federici’s book demonstrates the range of Italian recipes that don’t require any veganizing at all (bruschetta, panzanella, eggplant involtini) alongside those that had to be reimagined (the spreadable sausage nduja made with tempeh, cannoli shells made with aquafaba and filled with cashew ricotta). In between are those with simple swaps, such as the aforementioned Tofu Cacciatore. It’s based on the most popular dish in his nonna’s restaurant, but in this case the tofu has the extra benefit of sponging up the sweet and savory flavors of the chunky sauce of bell peppers, mushrooms, tomatoes and red wine in a way that chicken never could. It’s one of those dishes that’s even better the next day, when the flavors have taken even more time to mingle and marry.
By tearing the tofu into irregular pieces rather than cubing it, you give the sauce that many more places to nestle, and the dish keeps its rustic vibe. You can serve it with pasta, naturally, but Nonna likes to treat it as an antipasto, scooping it onto bread.
Many of the recipes — the ones that came more directly from his grandmother — are marked as “Nonna approved” in the book. But as Federici writes in the introduction, even for the recipes that he developed from scratch, “she’s tasted it all and given it her stamp of approval — meaning she said ‘very nice!’ or ‘lov-er-ly!’ when she tried it.”
Obviously, Nonna has something to be proud of, too, but that makes me want to ask something that I’m afraid might come across as a little rude. I gather my courage and spit it out: Is Federici sure that his nonna isn’t just saying she likes his food because, well, she loves him so much? In other words, would she be honest if she didn’t like a plant-based version of one of her favorites?
He smiles and admits that this was a concern in the book testing process. To combat it, he made sure to have plenty of other people try the recipes, too — especially one particularly frank tester. “It’s true that Nonna is going to say that anything I touch is lovely or great or fantastic,” he says. “But my granddad, he won’t say something is nice if he doesn’t like it.”
That means all these recipes are Nonno approved, too.
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Tofu Cacciatore
One (14- to 16-ounce) package firm tofu, drained
3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
2 teaspoons dried oregano, divided
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus more to taste
1/4 teaspoon fine salt, plus more to taste
2 red, orange or yellow bell peppers, or a mix, seeded and cut into 1-inch chunks
1 large white or red onion (10 ounces), chopped
8 ounces cremini or white button mushrooms, trimmed and cut into 1-inch chunks
2 garlic cloves, chopped
2/3 cup dry red wine, such as pinot noir or chianti
2 sprigs fresh thyme
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
2 1/2 cups (from one 24-ounce jar) store-bought or homemade marinara sauce (see related recipe)
Chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves, for serving
Vegan parmesan cheese, such as Violife or Follow Your Heart brand, for serving (optional)
Position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 400 degrees.
Use your hands to tear the tofu into craggy 1-inch chunks and transfer them to a large sheet pan. Drizzle with 1 tablespoon of the oil and season with 1 teaspoon of the oregano, the black pepper and salt, gently tossing the tofu to coat it evenly. Roast for 20 minutes, flipping the tofu halfway through, until it is lightly browned in spots.
Meanwhile, in a large (12-inch), deep skillet or Dutch oven over medium-high heat, heat the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil until shimmering. Add the bell peppers and onion and cook, stirring frequently, until the vegetables start to soften, about 4 minutes. Add the mushrooms and garlic and cook, stirring frequently, until the mushrooms soften, about 5 minutes. Add the wine, stir to combine and simmer until the wine reduces to just a few tablespoons, about 5 minutes.
Add the cooked tofu, stir to combine, reduce the heat to medium and simmer until it absorbs the flavors, about 5 minutes. Add the marinara, the remaining 1 teaspoon of oregano, the thyme and red pepper flakes, and cook until the sauce thickens and the flavors meld, about 5 minutes. Taste, and season with more salt and black pepper as needed.
Divide among individual shallow bowls, sprinkle with parsley leaves and vegan parmesan, if desired, and serve.
Servings: 4-6 (makes 6 cups)
Substitutions: For firm tofu, use extra-firm tofu, seitan or plant-based chicken. For cremini mushrooms, use oyster mushrooms or royal trumpet mushrooms. For vegan parmesan, use nutritional yeast. Not vegan? Use dairy parmesan cheese.
Variations: Instead of roasting, you can air fry the tofu at 400 degrees for about 12 minutes.
Make ahead: The tofu can be roasted up to 2 days in advance before you finish it in the sauce.
Nutritional information per serving (1 cup), based on 6: 252 calories, 13 g fat, 2 g saturated fat, 21 g carbohydrates, 479 mg sodium, 0 mg cholesterol, 11 g protein, 5 g fiber, 9 g sugar.
— Adapted from “Italian Cooking With Nonna” by Giuseppe Federici (NewSeed Press, 2025)