If you’ve ever thought about taking a 6-month trip to Italy to learn about pasta, starting at the top of the boot and slowly making your way down to the toe (and who hasn’t?!), but you can’t do that because your life’s circumstances have not been that generous, then simply buy this book. If you read it from beginning to end, cooking and eating your way through more often than not, then you will have just received a master class education in making, cooking, and coming really close to perfecting pasta.
Chef Missy Robbins has a couple of restaurants in Brooklyn, where she shares her soulful pasta dishes with her guests. She’s cooked in restaurants throughout the States and in Italy, and with her cookbooks, she shares her love of food with anyone interested. Pasta is a compendium of pasta shapes and styles, regional favorites and classic recipes that belong everywhere. But mostly it’s a love story about the possibilities of a dough that consists of only flour and eggs, or even flour and water.
Robbins starts us off with the basics—which flours she prefers, her essential equipment, and how to bring the ingredients together into a great dough. She is someone who believes in getting her hands dirty, talking about how the dough should feel, making working the dough sound like a form of meditation, a nod of gratitude towards the gods of pasta and a dream of what is to come for the family’s meal. You can go with her Egg Dough or Semolina Dough, or try something a little more adventurous like the Green Dough, Espresso Dough, Chickpea Dough, or Cocoa Dough.
From there, the decisions get more difficult—go with a hand-cut pasta, like a Pappardelle or a Tagliatelle? Or something hand shaped, like a Gnudi or Orecchiette? Or filled, as in a Cannelloni (one of my favorites) or Mezzalune? Or are you up for trying an extruded pasta, like Bucatini or Ziti? And from there, it only gets harder, as you try to decide between the Simple Red Sauce, 30-Clove Sauce, Diavola Sauce? Choose the Penne alla Vodka, the Spaghetti Vongole, or a Lasagna?
But those are only the American classics. Because after that, Robbins takes us on a tour of Italy’s regional dishes. You can head North to enjoy the Trofie al Pesto Genovese (Pasta with Pine Nut Pesto) or the Tortellini in Brodo (Pork-Filled Pasta in Broth). You can go to Central Italy to try the Pici at Ragu d’Anatra (Pasta with Duck Ragu) or Gnudi alla Florentina (Spinach and Ricotta Dumplings with Brown Butter and Sage). Or head South for the Spaghetti al Ricci de Mare (Pasta with Sea Urchin).
Or you can try one of the 30+ modern classics that aren’t so easy to place. They’re a little bit Italy, a little New York, and belong in any kitchen dedicated to brining the best out of simple flavors. From the Fettuccine with Spicy Lamb Sausage and Tomato Passata to the Potato and Crème Fraiche-Filled Ravioli with Garlic and Rosemary, from Pappardelle with Porcini and Veal Bolognese to the Espresso Tagliolini with Smoked Ricotta and Chiles, these recipes offer home chefs ideas for sophisticated meals to impress friends and family or just to savor with a good bottle of wine.
But more than these recipes or the 40-some different shapes of pasta that Robbins presents here, there is a soul to Pasta that focuses on the gift that is modern pasta. It sustains us, physically and emotionally. It excites our palettes and ignites our imagination. And it grounds us, crafting a homemade meal for those we love the most. Robbins brings all of this, along with her mastery of technique, to this beautiful cookbook.
When I first saw this cookbook, I was surprised and a little intimidated by its size. At 400 pages, it’s not exactly a quick read or a book that’s easily transported to the kitchen, to the sofa, to the store. It’s a formidable volume of pasta expertise. But as I read it, I realized that it’s so much more than that. It’s an honest, humble look at how pasta feeds our souls, from making the well in the flour to cooking it (she says to salt the water “until you’re uncomfortable”—who says that?), from learning how to marry the pasta and the sauce to plating it in a way that’s beautiful and heart-melting. It’s clear that she is in love with pasta, and she shares that love with us page after page. If you have anyone in your life who also loves pasta in a deep, abiding way, you will do them a disservice if you don’t share Pasta with them.
A copy of Pasta was provided by Ten Speed Press for a free and unbiased review, with many thanks.
