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You\u2019ve likely seen Hailee Catalano preparing glistening skillets of pasta and heaping platters of roast chicken or tomatoes or pork chops for her millions of followers. She cooks with the seasons, which she says is an indirect\u2014and inadvertent\u2014nod toward the foods with which she was raised. \u201cIt\u2019s only recently that I\u2019ve realized that sentiment is fully rooted in and influenced by the Italian American culture I grew up with,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Her 2025 cookbook, By Heart: Recipes to Hold Near and Dear,<\/em> chronicles Catalano\u2019s family- oriented Midwestern roots, her time spent working in restaurant kitchens, and her unplanned journey toward over 2 million followers on TikTok and Instagram. But a quick flip through the book reveals that Catalano\u2019s recipes are more than biographical\u2014she\u2019s breaking ground on a new type of personal cooking. One where mortadella sidles into an egg-and-cheese sandwich, and adobong mani\u2014Filipino fried garlic peanuts, which Catalano first experienced on a visit to her partner\u2019s family in the Philippines\u2014are alchemized into porcini herb snacking peanuts. Her cooking pulls from her life, not just her heritage.<\/p>\n We caught up with Catalano to talk about her culinary roots, experiments in Italian American fusion, and her favorite pasta shapes.<\/p>\n For all of your close ties to Italian American food, you\u2019re not shy about switching things up: using fennel instead of cauliflower in your giardiniera, for instance. What would you say to someone who belabors the point of authenticity?<\/strong><\/p>\n Hailee Catalano:<\/strong> When I write a recipe, I try to make something reminiscent of the original but easy for everyone to recreate with commonly available ingredients. I try to keep the heart of the dish or the ingredient. That\u2019s the evolution of quote, unquote authentic Italian American food. Things change over the years, and we have to adapt along with them. We\u2019re not trying to erase something, just to make it work in current times for current tastes.<\/p>\n That said, how many times a week are you eating pasta?<\/strong><\/p>\n HC:<\/strong> This week I think I\u2019ve had it five days in a row. I can really eat pasta every single day. I always ask Chuck [Cruz], my partner, \u201cDo you feel the same way about pasta?\u201d He\u2019s like, \u201cNo, not really.\u201d My comfort food is just pasta with any sort of red sauce on it. Chuck\u2019s is rice with tomatoes mixed with fish sauce. It\u2019s essentially the same meal in a different format.<\/p>\n Do you guys ever experiment with mash-ups of Italian American and Filipino food?<\/strong><\/p>\n HC:<\/strong> Recently we made this recipe\u2014there\u2019s this Filipino dish called arroz caldo, which is that rice-porridge-chicken vibe. We made a pastina version of it because it has a similar porridgy vibe. But we made it with all Filipino toppings and fish sauce and fried garlic\u2014we put a little bit of Pecorino in there too.<\/p>\n A lot of people view Italian American cooking as a monolith, but really it can go in so many different directions.<\/strong><\/p>\n HC:<\/strong> There are lots of regional differences in Italian American cooking too. In Chicago, when we had big family gatherings with catered food, there were always large trays of baked mostaccioli. I\u2019ve never seen that on a menu on the East Coast. Or chicken Vesuvio\u2014braised chicken and potatoes with white wine, garlic, and oregano. I thought that was something everyone grew up with, but I quickly learned it\u2019s a very Chicago thing.<\/p>\n And finally, the people need to know: What is your favorite pasta shape?<\/strong><\/p>\n HC:<\/strong> For short-cut pasta, rigatoni is my favorite, but honestly, I just like spaghetti. Is that crazy?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n