The Top One Hundred Pasta Sauces

A college friend turned me onto Diane Seed's cookbook, otherwise I might have overlooked such a slim volume, thinking that it didn't have much to offer. This little cookbook is packed full of terrific pasta recipes, all organized around the featured vegetable or ingredient: mushrooms, lemon, zucchini, walnuts, peas, spinach, etc. Most recipes are quick and simple to make, requiring only a few ingredients. One of the things I really appreciate about this cookbook is knowing that if I keep a few basic Italian cheeses and other ingredients on hand, I can whip up a really yummy dinner after stopping at the local produce market or farmers market for the fresh vegetables. Several recipes can be prepared with non-perishable items from the pantry, but don't taste like dinner came from a can. In addition to delicious, easy-to-follow recipes, the illustrations in "Top 100 Pasta Sauces" make it a delight to peruse.

...but that's only because the best Italian cookbook is Diane Seed's "Top 100 Italian Dishes."There is nothing to dislike about this book! The misleading title complaint is only because this isn't just a book of pasta sauces, unless you consider things like Fusilli con Polpettine (Fusilli with meatballs) or Penne alla Alberoni (baked penne with shrimp and mushrooms) to be just a sauce.By the way, the meatballs and the baked penne are two of my top 10 favourite recipes -- I perfected the meatball recipe, and I'm forever messing around with the penne, using scallops instead of shrimp, adding sake, feta cheese, green and waxed beans (but steam or zap those first, I discovered). It is such a foolproof recipe that it is possible to experiment like that and still know that dinner will be ready in 30 minutes, and that your guests will love it and demand the recipe.Warning: This is NOT a Westernized cookbook, it is an unapologetically Italian cookbook with extremely authentic recipes. There is very little meat in most of these recipes, and pairings of things that would rarely be thought of outside of Italy, like a main dish composed entirely of pasta, chickpeas, and celery.However, if you are prepared to be adventurous, and would like a source of wonderful meals that take less than 30 minutes to prepare, then this is the book for you. Come home exhausted, put a big pot of water on, sit down and relax until it boils, then create Linguine alle Olive in ten minutes flat. Linguine, garlic, black olives, olive oil, parsley salt, parmesan on the side, is all. You can dramatically change the recipe just by choosing what kind of black olives, from regular mild canned olives to intense oily kalamatas (I recommend the latter).This book is completely filled with recipes like that. I much prefer photographs of finished dishes in cookbooks, but the fanciful illustrations here (by Robert Budwig) turn the book into a work of art.Not all of the recipes are quickies, but the slower ones are where Ms. Seed does most of her teaching. You literally have NO idea what Spaghetti Bolognese is until you have spent a couple of hours making her version (only a half hour of that time requires your presence in the kitchen).I've had this book for several years, so it is now dog-eared and much scribbled upon. I must have made at least thirty of the recipes, with only one dud, and that just because my palate just couldn't encompass the idea of having lemon as the overriding flavour in a main dish.In summary: a wonderful cookbook, mostly full of very simple recipes that call for little time and few (but excellent) ingredients, coupled with a few time-consuming spectacular creations for special occasions.Now, do yourself a favour and check out the BEST Italian cookbook...

This book is easy to follow and has great tasting authentic regional Itialian recipies. This cookbook is one of the best and most used in my kitchen.

A well-written, beautiful book on the topic of *real* Italian pasta. If you think of pasta as a pile of noodles drenched in a slow-cooked red sauce, this book will open your eyes to the possibility of quick, tasty sauces of all sorts. It also includes both metric and "standard" measurements of the ingedients, a great help to international users. The tomato/orange sauce is wonderfull with sausage ravioli!

This is a wonderful, simple book of the most authentic Italian pasta sauces you will find. The author is English, but has lived in Italy for many years. Having also traveled to Italy, I can attest to the authenticity of the recipes--I make them and they take me back to harborside trattorias. These recipes are not for people who enjoy Chef Boyardee Spaghetti and Meatballs--they are for people who enjoyed the movie "Big Night." Most recipes are healthy in the Mediterranean style--but many are decidedly not low fat. My only suggestion would be to include lower fat ingredient alternatives, but you can do that yourself.