A Passion for Pasta

“A Passion For Pasta” is a short little pasta based recipe book that eschews classy presentation in favor of a more straightforwared, no-nonsense style. The book itself really isn’t anything to look at, just a flimsy paperback with all black and white recipes, and no photographs of any of the finished dishes. There is a pretty standard introduction discussing why the author loves pasta so much and how it can be a part of the reader’s daily meal planning, followed by a short section about how pasta should be properly cooked. Most recipe books that focus on pasta based dishes will give a guide showing what each pasta type looks like to assist the reader when shopping. This book follows that example, but as there are no photographs and everything is black and white, the reader is presented with several illustrations, which aren’t quite as helpful. The recipes themselves are the books main selling point (actually, the books ONLY selling point). They are all high quality, and there is a decent amount of variation. Most of them run on the more expensive side, however, and will have the would-be chef searching the supermarket for more pricey and lesser known ingredients, such as Fontina, Roquefort, or Bel Paese Cheese. Several of the recipes are suprisingly original and won’t be found in most other cookbooks, like “Fire and Velvet Zinger”, an interesting mix of chorizo, sour cream, and bell peppers, or “Ellen’s Saffron Seafood”, which utilizes several ingredients not normally found in a pasta recipe. For those who already have all the more well known pasta cookbooks and would like to move on to something different, “A Passion for Pasta” is a suitable, if less than perfect, choice. Ty Arthur “xFiruath”