Customer Reviews

Pasta Verde

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is the one cookbook I go back to over and over. Every single recipe I have tried has been absolutely delicious. Well worth reading the front section on selecting pastas, cheeses and olive oils. My favorites are: Pasta Primavera, Spaghetti with Pumpkin(which I have prepared and served at least 20 times this year), Roasted zucchini half moons with bow tie pasta, & the lasagnas. I am now purchasing additional books as gifts to my friends. You do not have to be vegetarian to love these dishes.

I have made almost every recipe in this book. This alone is unusual for me, because I have many, many cookbooks. But, I get such rave reviews from Judith's recipes I keep wanting to try another and another one. Some of the recipes I wrote "excellent" next to are: Spaghetti Primavera; Penne with Roasted Asparagus & Shaved Grana; Penne with Artichokes, Lemon & Capers; Spaghetti with Caramelized Onions & Fresh Hot Pepper; Linguine with Roasted Plum Tomatoes & Fresh Herbs; Penne with Roasted Eggplant, Tomatoes & Onions; Spaghettini with Uncooked Fresh Tomatoes, Arugula & Parmesan; Penne with Tomatoes, Roasted Peppers & Fresh Asiago Cheese; Bow Ties with Portabello Mushrooms, Radicchio & Mascarpone; Fresh Pesto Sauce; Spaghetti with Zucchini, Summer Squash & Fresh Pesto Sauce; Lentil & Ditallini Soup; Chick-Peas & Ditallini with Rosemary Soup; Lasagna of Pan-Roasted Eggplant, Mozzarella & Fresh Tomato Sauce; Autum Lasagna with Butternut Squash, Mushrooms & Roasted Chestnuts; Cavatappi Baked with Sweet Onions & Fontina; and the Baked Ziti with Fontina Cheese & Three Kinds of Squash. The recipes are easy to follow and many cooking details and techniques are also included.

I have shelves full of cookbooks but find myself turning to "Pasta Verde" at least once or twice a week. The recipes are delicious, quick and easy to prepare, and generally use common ingredients. Several are a bit high in fat and heavy-handed with dairy products, but easy to modify (and still taste wonderful after doing so). A wide variety of vegetables are used throughout. Strict vegetarians beware: the soup section contains recipes for beef and chicken stock, but vegetable stock (recipe also included) can be used instead.

We like to eat pasta and have really come to like the whole wheat and other pastas that are actually good for you. This book has been a great resource for us. The recipes are really really good, easy to prepare and have opened my eyes to much more than just the basic tomato sauce. There are recipes for bean and pasta soups, all sorts of pastas with different vegetables, a variety of pasta salads, and more. Really inspirational

In depth information about ingredients allow you to choose the very best for each recipe; preparations are simple but sophisticated with many innovative vegetable/cheese compositions resulting in great dishes with distinct flavour!

This book proves that you need not sacrifice flavor, texture, nor variety, nor inconvenience yourself in the kitchen, to give up meat. Some of the recipies may be difficult for culinary novices such as myself, but like most other things, once you pick up the fundamentals, the rest comes much easier. There are also some very simple and delicious recipies included. Highly recommended for those who are considering giving up meat yet think that they would miss it too much. I bet you won't even notice it's gone!

My 5-star rating may be a bit high. I don't have tons of experience with this book yet. I bought it some time ago, and not from Amazon. I paged through the book fairly carefully when I got it. I never really used it, but just recently went back to it to check something.
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I saw a video on "Spaghetti Aglio e Olio"(Spaghetti with Oil and Garlic) on the web. I tried to find it in my book, but couldn't. I found what appears to be the same thing on page 48, listed as "Spaghetti with Garlic, Hot Red Pepper, and Parsley". Kind of annoying, because they could have used what I believe is the common name.
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Zero pictures in this book. Not such a huge problem--if you are reading this, you have access to the net. Use Google images to see what the dish should look like, if you need to. YouTube has tons of videos on preparing any dish you want, and you'll get to see variations.
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A few reviewers mentioned that this book has some recipes that call for either meat or fish stock. Almost always, one can substitute vegetable stock. Make your own or get it from the store. I don't recall encountering non-vegetarian stocks in these recipes. I know I probably skimmed the soup section, don't care about soups. Maybe the soup recipes called for these non-vegetarian stocks, I'm not sure.
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As for cheese and one reviewer's comment on certain cheeses, all I can say is I do my best to eat vegetarian, if occasionally something slips by me, oh, well. I think you're gonna find relatively few veggie-Italian cookbooks. And its hard to picture Italian food without cheeses.
There are special cheeses that aren't dairy products. I figure that if I usually avoid eating meat and fish, I'm doing well enough. You're entitled to your opinion.

This book has some solid recipes that I will use. However, it also has recipes for beef and chicken broth?? Last time I checked this was suppose to be a vegetarian cook book. Will be taking some pages out.

While shopping at an upscale Italian specialty food store, I saw a copy of Pasta Verde in the owner's bookcase. A brief flip through the cookbook convinced me that I needed to have it!
The owner suggested that Amazon might still carry the paperback. It was here within 3 days!

Now my three cheese and swiss chard ravioli is a signature piece at dinner parties.

I have to say it to warn the vegetarians - this book is not vegetarian. It is meatless, I'll give it that, but it calls for omnivorous cheeses, and this is by the own author's admission, where she describes one of the cheeses as being from the rennet/lining of a baby lamb's stomach.

For an omnivore, this book is great. For lacto-ovo vegetarians and vegans, who know which vegetarian products to use and automatically know when a recipe calls for an omnivorous item what they can whip up, it is a gem as well.

Just a warning to people who are vegetarian and don't have access to rennet-free cheeses or vegan cheeses.

Edited to add: This book also has meat stocks in it, recipes calling for veal carcasses and such. I want to grab a marker and black-out the deathly words.