Monday Book Review: Pasta (The Little Guides)

From the Inside Flap

Pasta, once a humble peasant dish, is now an international culinary superstar. Why has this happened? It’s because pasta is not only simple to prepare at home, but is light, healthy, extraordinarily versatile and it tastes great. The Little Guide to Pasta, an essential in every pasta lover’s library, shows you how to make fresh pasta at home, what to look for when buying packaged pasta, and new and fresh ways of using it. Included are recipes for stuffed and layered pasta dishes, shaped pasta, pasta salads and a collection of sensational sauces.

From the back page

Past is one of the world’s best loved and most useful ingredients. This collection of easy-to-use recipes ranges from the classic to the contemporary, from light lunches to elegant dinner parties.

Useful step-by-step instructions
Nutritional analysis for each recipe
Glossary of ingredients

My Take

First of all, I love these Little Guides cookbooks. Compact and chock full of exciting, new and interesting recipes. They have common, every day ingredients, nothing too out of the ordinary, sometimes expensive, though. This guide does a good job explaining what pasta is, the importance and economy of pasta around the world. They have germane recipes, explanations how to mix the dough, create different pastas.

The recipes themselves, using the pasta, are rich and not very healthy. They recommend full fat, heavy cream, half and half, half cream, full fat cheeses, expensive cheeses very few of us could afford, although we all know how to substitute low-fat and inexpensive cheeses in our dishes, and how to create our own low-fat white sauces.

Pasta, The Little Guides does have some great ideas that will jump-start your pasta night, get you out of the rut you may be in or just wanting to try something new for yourself or your family.

I would give 3.5 stars.