Customer Reviews

The Top 100 Pasta Sauces

5 star:		(4)
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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.

wonderful intoduction to Italian pasta; worlds beyond just tomato and meat sauce, good though that may be. Highly, highly recommended: unusual, inventive sauces, many inexpensive and quick, but also several luxurious ones for special occasions or just to try. Thank God it's still in print.

I encourage you to look up the different versions of this book; paperback, hard cover, no cover and read as many of the reviews as you can to see what people have said about this lovely little volume. For the most part you'll find that this book has been part of peoples daily cooking life for ten years or more and that the people that love it best are ordinary home cooks (some lucky enough to have lived in Italy) that *know* what a prized source of recipes they have here in this unassuming package.

This year I'm going on a culinary journey with this book; I've decided to focus on making recipes from two cook books in 2012 and this is one of them. So far I've read the opening chapters and read through several of the recipes. What I see so far is that the ingredients are entirely manageable as in you probably have four out of five ingredients at home already. The second thing is that they don't take much time or fancy techniques. From the little bit I've read now and from the forecast of the reviews *I* read, I'm very excited to learn to make authentic homemade Italian pasta dishes from Diane Seed.

I'll be updating this review as I go along and try the recipes.

So many alternatives to just red sauce. Magnificent illustrations!
The book itself is a gorgeous decoration to leave out everyday.