Books about Italian Nonnas are a dime a dozen, and most of them tend to reduce their subjects to “cute” little old ladies— and I set out to create the antithesis for that kind of surface-level storytelling, with my friend (and co-author’s grandmother) Elda Cristini. My goal was to pay homage to— not tiptoe around—the depth and complexity of Elda as a matriarch whose story spans continents and whose influence spans generations. In this way, Heart-Shaped Tomatoes is a documentary-style book that uses recipes, photography, and personal essays as an entry point for examining the themes of struggle, independence, generational knowledge and loving people through food.