The Complete Book of Pasta and Noodles [Paperback]

Cook's Illustrated (Author)

Book Description

Release date: September 17, 2002

How do you boil pasta? How much water and salt do you need? Should you add oil to the water? How well should you drain it? (Turn to page viii for the answers.)

One part cooking course, one part kitchen reference, and one part foolproof recipes, The Complete Book of Pasta and Noodles tells the story of flour and water like no other book on the market. Extensively covering the basics of pasta and noodles, this thoroughly researched and taste-tested guide is dedicated to the home cook who needs practical advice on everything from penne to pad thai. The experts at Cook's Illustrated present their knowledge and techniques in a hands-on way so that each and every step of the cooking process can be understood and easily executed. The authors leave room for interpretation and taste, of course, but you will not walk away from this book without knowing which olive oil to buy, why egg pastas tend to complement cream sauces, or how to mince garlic.

The book is arranged in four sections, exploring first dried semolina pasta, then fresh Italian-style pasta, Mediterranean pasta and European dumplings, and finally, Asian noodles. There are thirteen chapters devoted to sauces alone, and recipes are included with the type of pasta with which they work best -- from the simplest to the complex, but all within reach of the home cook. As a bonus, the book includes excellent photographs of the various pasta and noodle shapes, and impeccable illustrations clearly depict each step of key techniques. Special sections are devoted to such specific topics as "Are Electric Pasta Machines Worth the Money?" and "A Guide to Popular Cheeses."

"Cook's has always been the definitive word on any subject it tackles," says The Post and Courier, and The Complete Book of Pasta and Noodles will serve as the definitive reference volume for pasta lovers.


From the Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Americans love pasta. But this doesn't mean we know about its many types, how best to serve it, or even how best to bring it from plate to mouth. Exploring these topics and more, The Cook's Illustrated Complete Book of Pasta and Noodles offers a comprehensive introduction to the world's pasta, from spaghetti, couscous, and spaetzle to ramen, udon, rice sticks, and more. Compiled from the pages of Cook's Illustrated, the magazine of culinary investigation, the book is a trove of illustrated step-by-step instructions (on rolling pasta dough, for example), hundreds of pasta and related recipes, tips on buying and storage, and other useful data. In chapters such as "Dried Semolina Pasta and Chinese Wheat Noodles," the book explores a particular pasta type and then provides useful supplementary information. Included, for example, are pasta-tasting results, a "gallery" of pasta shapes, and material on matching pasta shapes to sauces. Offered also are comprehensive saucing chapters that cover such pasta accompaniments as olive oil, butter, cheese, bread crumbs, canned and fresh tomatoes, and seafood, among many others. The recipes themselves are exhaustive and, as one might expect, models of accuracy and good taste. Included are the likes of Macaroni with Spinach and Gorgonzola, Lasagna with Shrimps and Scallops, Potato Gnocchi with Butter, Sage, and Parmesan Cheese, and Cellophane Noodle Salad with Charred Beef and Snow Peas. With master recipes for many of the basic pasta types and more than 300 illustrations, the book should enlighten pasta lovers while whetting their appetite for its many satisfactions. --Arthur Boehm --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Hot on the heels of a James Beard Award for The Cook's Illustrated Complete Book of Poultry comes this encyclopedic guide to pasta and noodles. While not quite as inspired as the poultry book, this effort is nevertheless a most welcome entryAeven a daring one in these days when carbs are the bad boys of the food world. The recipes are for the most part simplicity itself and, although many of the dishes are familiar Italian classics, are varied enough to merit an enthusiastic response. Such fare as Linguine with Lemon-Dill Pesto and Penne with Ricotta Salata and Black Olives are suitable for side dishes. Fettuccine with Bolognese Sauce with Beef, Pancetta and Red Wine appealingly enriches an already flavorful sauce. There are 15 sauces made with raw tomatoes, eight with cooked fresh tomatoes and 16 with canned tomatoes. Macaroni and Pinto Bean Soup with Mussels and Rosemary is certain to please, and undertaking a variety of fresh pasta with or without eggs is less intimidating when guided by the team's customary step-by-step methods. The book truly distinguishes itself with its attention to foods not always found in pasta roundups, such as crespelle (the Italian version of the French crepe) and spatzle. Even better are recipes for Chinese wheat noodles (Stir-Fried Chinese Noodles with Chicken in Szechwan Chile Sauce), Japanese wheat noodles (Ramen Noodles with Roast Pork and Spinach), Asian rice noodles (Rice Paper Spring Rolls with Rice Noodles and Shrimp) and cellophane noodles (Cellophane Noodle Salad with Charred Beef and Snow Peas). These are splendid additions to any pasta repertoire. (Aug.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 496 pages
• Publisher: Clarkson Potter; Reprint edition (September 17, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 060980930X
• ISBN-13: 978-0609809303
• Product Dimensions: 7.3 x 1.3 x 9.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (73 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #21,179 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #6 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Cooking by Ingredient > Pasta
  • #25 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Regional & International > European > Italian
  • #59 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Reference

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

61 of 65 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Survey of all Things Noodle. Buy It! May 15, 2007

By B. Marold HALL OF FAMETOP 100 REVIEWER

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

`The Complete Book of Pasta and Noodles' by the Editors of `Cooks Illustrated' Magazine is one of those books whose outstanding value is obvious almost immediately upon opening to the Table of Contents. This was surprising to me, as this is not the case with most other `Cooks Illustrated' books. There is just something about the meeting of this subject with the classic `Cooks Illustrated' approach to things which comes up a winner.

The first positive impression is the excellent organization of the chapters into different types of pastas, noodles, and sauces for same. While there are many excellent books about on pasta dishes, most especially `The Top100 Best Pasta Sauces' by Diane Seed and just about any book by Marcella Hazan, Lidia Bastianich, or Ruth Rodgers and Rose Gray of London's River Café, this `Cooks Illustrated' volume organizes our thinking about the sauces to make us all much better at improvising our own pasta sauces. It divides pasta sauces into:

Olive Oil based sauces, both cooked and uncooked.

Pesto and other pureed sauces.

Butter and Cheese sauces, such as spaghetti alla Carbonara

Cream Sauces, such as Fettuccine Alfredo

Sauces with Bread Crumbs

Cooked Sauces with Fresh Tomatoes

Canned Tomato Sauces, such as Pasta Puttanesca and Vodka Cream sauce

Sauces with Vegetables, such as `cabbage and noodles' and `pasta Primavera'

Sauces with Beans and Lentils

Sauces with Meat, such as the classic Bolognese sauce

Sauces with Seafood, such as clam and other shellfish sauces.

Like Seed's book and virtually any other book on pasta and noodles, the subject really is pasta and noodle dishes, although this volume, true to its title, gives as much about actually making a wide variety of pastas. It also covers just about every conceivable form of noodle, including the German spatzle, the North African couscous, gnocchis (the bridge between the Italian and the German forms of dumpling), Japanese noodles (soba, somen, ramen, and udon) and Chinese noodles, especially rice and cellophane noodles.

The book can easily be forgiven for spending more time on the Italian noodle than on any other subject, as this is the primary interest of most English speaking readers. To this end, the book includes excellently detailed tutorials on making fresh pastas, with and without egg, with vegetable and herb additions, spatzle, and several varieties of gnocchi. It does not, however, teach us how to make couscous or any of the oriental noodle types, which is fine with me, as I believe they are techniques which require far more practice and patience than the classic Italian or German noodle.

I love a cookbook that sheds new light on a dish I've made a dozen times and consider `my own'. This is what happens here when I read the material on combining cabbage and noodles in a dish. It reminds me of how to best cut the cabbage, but it significantly adds to my knowledge of how to braise the cabbage and combine it with the noodles at just the right time.

`Cooks Illustrated' tends to squeeze a lot of the `joie de vivre' out of cooking in their articles by starting off with a clean slate, as if no one had ever made the dish they are discussing in an article. Cooking is one of those crafts where centuries of practice have pretty much arrived at the best way to do most things without loading us up with all the paraphernalia of experimental science. But, with this subject, proper respect is given to tradition, and to the recommendations of such culinary sages as Paula Wolfert on couscous and Marcella Hazan on pasta.

Their finest contributions are the sidebarred tutorials on everything from preparing artichokes to opening clams. This makes the book superb for the novices who happen to enjoy experimenting with their own variations of pasta dishes.

I must also mention that as a trade paperback, this manual of riches lists for less than $20, about half the cost of a book of recipes from an A-List culinary writer.

169 of 191 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A Must For Pasta Lovers! August 5, 2001

By A Customer

Format:Hardcover

I'm an avid cook and, while I no longer subscribe to "Cooks Illustrated" magazine, I respect editor Christopher Kimball and his expert "Cook's Illustrated" kitchen crew and have had good luck, more or less, with their recipes which, if followed exactly, are virtually foolproof. I also never fail to learn something from their informative kitchen commentary. All in all, Kimball's recipes and advice are beneficial to both novice and experienced cooks.

That having been I have to point out that taste is, of course, subjective. For instance, I've found, from trying a number of Kimball's recipes, that he is a salt-a-holic. I prefer to cook with little or no salt, as I find the taste harsh and unpleasant, and if I followed Kimbell's recipes exactly I'd be drowning in the stuff. I prefer pepper and tend to double or triple the often meager amounts Kimbell calls for in his recipes (usually he calls for four or fives times more salt than pepper, and I almost reverse that ratio). But, if your taste is the same as Kimball's when it comes to a particular food, his well-researched and thoroughly-tested recipes will be amazing!

I must also warn cooks that Kimball's cookbooks are books not necessarily made for cooking (odd, isn't it?). They are standard-bound hardcover editions that rarely lie flat (the latest, "The Best Recipe," is a little better than the others) and the index is dreadful--a fairly major gripe when you consider how important an index is to a cookbook when, say, you quickly want to find a recipe for "Chicken Soup" and you can't even decipher where the "Cs" start! There may be six or seven pages under the tiny heading "entrees," five of which may start with "chicken," leading you to believe you're in the "Cs" when you're actually in the "Es." It's very confusing. Many other people have recommended putting dictionary like letter headers (for example "CHI-CLA") at the top of each index page and, after trying it, I have to say I highly recommend this method.

All of Kimball's "Cook's Illustrated" cookbooks follow the same basic format: a long-winded, but often interesting, discourse on how Kimball views the "perfect" version of whatever it is he's showing you how to cook, including a lengthy explanation of variations he has tried, followed by his "Master Recipe" for the food, including common variations. In "The Complete Book of Pasta and Noodles," Kimball covers everything from homemade pasta (surprisingly, he doesn't stress it's necessity, saying dried pasta is almost as good and a whole lot easier) to every type of sauce and other topping--Italian, Chinese, Mediterranean, etc.--imaginable.

Usually my biggest problem with Kimball cookbooks is this: If you have one, you have them all. He lifts whole passages and recipes and uses them in multiple books. "The Yellow Farmhouse Cookbook," and the "Cook's Bible," for instance, have at least 50 identical recipes, not to mention verbatim introductions to each section and cookware recommendations repeated word-for-word. "The Best Recipe" features ALL of the recipes (as far as I can tell) from the "Cook's Bible," with the same commentary, which is, in turn, lifted in whole chunks from past issues of "Cooks Illustrated." I'm sure this saves Mr. Kimball a great deal of time when compiling his cookbooks but it leaves little reason to own more than one edition of his work. The "Pasta and Noodle" cookbook though, is an exception to this rule. While it does contain exact repeats from other books, it also adds a wealth of new recipes and information, making it more than worth your while for anyone who cooks pasta regularly. There is literally a lifetime worth of pasta recipes in this small book!

33 of 34 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Misleading October 20, 2011

By Derek

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Much like the other bad reviews of this book (I didn't read the reviews close enough BEFORE buying), this book has very little information on making pasta.

The book focuses on the Italian noodles and associated sauces. I bought the book thinking "The Complete Book of Pasta and Sauces" with chapter titles of "Couscous", "Chinese Wheat Noodles", "Japanese Wheat Noodles", "Rice Noodles", "Cellophane Noodles", and "Soba Noodles" would describe how to make them. It does not. It only tells you how to take store bought versions and combine with a sauce.

The book focuses on sauces, and pairing pasta with the sauces.
Here is the basic list of pasta in the book:
'Chapter 3: Fresh Egg Pasta (and variations):
Spinach Pasta, Fresh Herb Pasta, Buckwheat Pasta, Whole Wheat Pasta, Corn Pasta, Beet Pasta, Saffron Pasta, Tomato Pasta, Black Pepper Pasta
' Chapter 4: Fresh Pasta without Eggs:
Fresh Semolina Pasta, Fresh Whole Wheat Pasta
' Chapter 22 & 23 : Miscellaneous Baked Fresh Pasta Dishes:
Crespelle, Canneloni, Ravioli (i.e. fresh egg pasta wrapped around something)
' Chapter 24: Gnocchi
Gnocchi
' Chapter 25: Spätzle
Spätzle

I have enjoyed many other Cooks Illustrated books, but the title and description for this particular book is incorrect. If you are looking for pasta sauces, this book may be OK. If you (like me) are looking to make pasta other than egg pasta, this book is horrible. Even on the back cover, it claims "Step-by-step, easy-to-follow instruction on making fresh pasta and noodles, including gnocchi and couscous". The only 'recipe' I could find in the book for making couscous was to buy a premade-box of couscous and put into boiling water. This is not 'making couscous'.