Customer Reviews

Pasta Harvest: Delicious Recipes Using Vegetables at Their Seasonal Best

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have made at least half of the recipes from this book, and have yet to come upon one that did not receive rave reviews from my guests.

I own a number of pasta and italian cookbooks. I use this one most often. All the recipees are very tasty and easy to prepare. Real crowd pleaser! The variety of recipees is good without being overwelming. Vegetarians will like the options as well as meat eaters. The pictures are beautiful and helpful when you can't decide what to fix for dinner.

I'd not heard of Janet Fletcher before this book, and I still don't understand why she isn't better known in the culinary world outside of San Francisco. She is a genius with food, especially pasta.

This book is divided into sections by vegetable, which is great because if you have a particular vegetable on hand, you can find a fabulous pasta to make with it. My favorites are:

--Gemelli with Artichokes, Olives, Feta and Capers (I make this one the most)
--Spaghetti with Shredded Artichokes
--Ditali with Asparagus (I sometimes add chopped prosciutto to this)
--Buckwheat Pappardelle with Cabbage, Fontina and Sage (I use regular pappardelle)
--Spaghetti with Chard, Onions and Anchovy Butter (so, so good)
--Penne with Broiled Eggplant and Tomato
--Whole Wheat Spaghetti with Arugula
--Spaghetti with Tomato and Anchovy Salad (a great uncooked sauce for summer)
--Pappardelle with Creamy Tomato Sauce

As of this review, the price of this book is a steal. I can't recommend it enough.

This is a great twist on the typical pasta cookbook. It is arranged by vegetable so you choose what you want and then look for a recipie and you will most likely find one you want. The Fettuccine with Artichokes, Prosciutto and Cream has become one of my favorite recapies to make cause it is so yummy and so easy! All recipes from this book have come out great so far. Great pictures too!

The recipes in this book are artful and rely on fresh ingredients without being overly complex. My guests consistently love the dishes and the author makes it easy to stock the basics for most of the recipes. Great for veggie lovers too -- mostly meatless dishes. Highly recommended.

I've given this cookbook to just about everyone I know. It's fantastic. It's organized by type of vegetable, and so far I've loved every recipe I've tried. The recipe on the cover -- tomatoes with goat cheese and basil -- has become a standard quick recipe for me and some of my friends during the summer, when the tomatoes are good. The mushrooms and fried sage pasta is also particularly good. I happened to run into Janet Fletcher at a pasta shop in Berkeley, and I'm afraid I acted like a groupie, gushing about how I'd given this cookbook to all my friends. But she was very nice about it. :)

I've been using this cookbook regularly since it was published. When I lived in San Rafael, CA I would go to the (fabulous) farmer's market every Thursday and/or Sunday and buy whatever was fresh - even if I wasn't familiar with it. Then I'd go home and find a recipe for it in Pasta Harvest. My husband and I still eat many of the dishes in this book on a regular basis. Our favorite is the Spaghetti with Broccoli Rabe, Olives, and Provolone. And when broccoli rabe is out of season (most of the time) I substitute spinach - somewhere between 18 to 20 ounces. Another favorite is the Gemelli with Artichokes, Olives, Feta, and Capers. Off season I use Trader Joe's (2 cans) artichoke hearts. Our third most used recipe is the one for Spaghetti with Marinated Tomatoes and Goat Cheese. I like to use tiny sweet grape tomatoes that I cut in half so I can rinse away the seeds instead of using large tomatoes and going through the process of blanching and de-seeding them. But if I can't get sweet grape tomatoes, I buy the softest (ripest) organic tomatoes I can find (like Early Girls) and take the time to blanch and seed them because it makes a huge difference in the taste of the pasta. I serve it with french bread sliced in half with a layer of pesto topped with olive tapenade (broiled on low, like garlic bread). Wow! What a great meal. Will easily feed 6 or 4 very hungry people. And don't forget the wine! I have an extra copy of this cookbook just in case the original falls apart, although it's holding up quite well after constant use over the last 15 years! You can get this cookbook on Amazon for next to nothing now, so if you're a pasta lover, or a vegetarian (like my husband), and like fresh foods, this is the cookbook for you. You won't find these dishes in a restaurant. They're truly unique.

Fletcher continually creates delicious recipes that are easy to do in all her cookbooks (e.g., Fresh from the Farmer's Market); this book is no exception. Cauliflower, eggplant, leeks, squash all get a turn here, so there's something for everybody. I've yet to create one of these recipes that wasn't met with huzzahs, so get this book and start cooking! Fantastic.