Customer Reviews

The Top One Hundred Pasta Sauces

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

...but that's only because the best Italian cookbook is Diane Seed's "Top 100 Italian Dishes."

There is nothing to dislike about this book! The misleading title complaint is only because this isn't just a book of pasta sauces, unless you consider things like Fusilli con Polpettine (Fusilli with meatballs) or Penne alla Alberoni (baked penne with shrimp and mushrooms) to be just a sauce.

By the way, the meatballs and the baked penne are two of my top 10 favourite recipes -- I perfected the meatball recipe, and I'm forever messing around with the penne, using scallops instead of shrimp, adding sake, feta cheese, green and waxed beans (but steam or zap those first, I discovered). It is such a foolproof recipe that it is possible to experiment like that and still know that dinner will be ready in 30 minutes, and that your guests will love it and demand the recipe.

Warning: This is NOT a Westernized cookbook, it is an unapologetically Italian cookbook with extremely authentic recipes. There is very little meat in most of these recipes, and pairings of things that would rarely be thought of outside of Italy, like a main dish composed entirely of pasta, chickpeas, and celery.

However, if you are prepared to be adventurous, and would like a source of wonderful meals that take less than 30 minutes to prepare, then this is the book for you. Come home exhausted, put a big pot of water on, sit down and relax until it boils, then create Linguine alle Olive in ten minutes flat. Linguine, garlic, black olives, olive oil, parsley salt, parmesan on the side, is all. You can dramatically change the recipe just by choosing what kind of black olives, from regular mild canned olives to intense oily kalamatas (I recommend the latter).

This book is completely filled with recipes like that. I much prefer photographs of finished dishes in cookbooks, but the fanciful illustrations here (by Robert Budwig) turn the book into a work of art.

Not all of the recipes are quickies, but the slower ones are where Ms. Seed does most of her teaching. You literally have NO idea what Spaghetti Bolognese is until you have spent a couple of hours making her version (only a half hour of that time requires your presence in the kitchen).

I've had this book for several years, so it is now dog-eared and much scribbled upon. I must have made at least thirty of the recipes, with only one dud, and that just because my palate just couldn't encompass the idea of having lemon as the overriding flavour in a main dish.

In summary: a wonderful cookbook, mostly full of very simple recipes that call for little time and few (but excellent) ingredients, coupled with a few time-consuming spectacular creations for special occasions.

Now, do yourself a favour and check out the BEST Italian cookbook...

I am a college student who enjoys cooking. My mom had this cookbook around when I was a child and I remember loving to look at the pictures because they were so beautiful. The illustrations are stunning and really fun to look at while you cook. :o)

I must say that recently when I came home for Winter Break, I started cooking for my family on Thursday evening. I didn't really want to make just plain old pasta and tomato sauce, so I dug through her cookbooks and this one jumped out at me. I found a great recipe for baked pasta with a parmesean and motzerella sauce and baked. My family went crazy for it.

This cookbook is absolutly wonderful for making some simple dishes. It has a wide variety of options. My only COMPLAINT is that it doesn't have US measurments, but, for someone who is math challenged like me, it was easy to figure out how much to use. :o)

Buy this book if you want to have some fantastic Itallian dinners and not have them take all day to prepare!

`The Top One Hundred Pasta Sauces' by Diane Seed, Illustrated by Robert Budwig, is only slightly misnamed in that it is really a book of the author's top 100 favorite pasta dishes. Every recipe is a combination of a specific shape and variety (dried or fresh) of pasta, a specific cooking method (baked or top of the stove), and a specific `finishing touch' of cheese, parsley, basal, or what have you. The best evidence that this book deals with dishes and not sauces is the concluding chapter which includes two different recipes for that ultimate pasta dish, the timballo or macaroni pie.

The book does not select its top 100 from a study of other cookbooks, the author has selected these recipes from her own experiences with cooks throughout Italy from her base in Rome. That does not mean her selection of recipes is a lot different from what you get by polling 20 cookbooks of Italian recipes. Every recipe you may expect to find here is really here, even if a bit it may take a bit of looking to locate some favorites. This problem is exacerbated by the fact that the book has NO INDEX! If this were not such an otherwise so thoroughly delightful book, I would certainly consider this as grounds to demote it by at least one star.

But with some perserverence, you will find Pasta Puttanesca, Spaghetti Carbonara, Ragu Bolognaise, Rigatoni with four cheeses (mac and cheese), Pasta Primavera, Pasta with Pesto, Pasta and meatballs, and the aforementioned timballi recipes. The only `famous' pasta recipes I could not find were fettucini Alfredo, a Vodka sauce, or any gnocchi recipes, althought there were several cream based sauces and also many which were made with either wine or brandy. I must note that the `mac and cheese' recipe given here is unlike any recipe you will find in a book aimed specifically at American audiences, as it is made without either a custard or a bechamel sauce. I am really pleased to find this recipe, as I saw a similar one in another pasta book and thought it was something of a mistake. Turns out the mistake was mine, in not fully appreciating the import of some instructions.

I am certain the author did not base her selection of sauces entirely on popularity because the book covers just about every different type of sauce you can imagine, including the whole spectrum of ingredients from green vegetables to beans and lentils to mushrooms to seafood to pork and beef and lamb to olives to squash and pumpkin to nuts to lemon. And, the book is very nicely organized by these principle ingredients, except for the last chapter of special celebratory dishes which either include many different ingredients or include relatively expensive ingredients. This wide variety makes the book a perfect source if you happen to need a recipe with which to use up some frozen peas. Luckily, the table of contents is quite good at pointing to the right page for such a need, especially as this silly book HAS NO INDEX!!!

It is quite appropriate that the illustrator receive front page credit for this book, as the excellent color drawings, probably done with colored pencil or crayon, make this book a joy to browse.

Aside from the lack of an index, the book is also just a bit lax in referring from one recipe to another within the book. All such references are easily misunderstood, as when we are instructed to find something in the `third' recipe, where it is not said whether it means the third recipe in the chapter or the third recipe in the book (they meant the third recipe in the chapter, not my first guess).

I am very fond of the fact that almost all measurements are in both English and metric units. On the other hand, I have the feeling that the cooking procedures are aimed at someone with just a bit more a beginner's kitchen skills. Several of the typical little hints given in Italian recipes such as warnings not to cook the garlic too hard or to cut the basil at the last minute are missing.

While the book covers much more than just sauces, it is not a book on pasta, as there is not a single pasta recipe anywhere to be found. That is probably why there are no gnocchi recipes, as gnocchi is one form of pasta which is almost invariably made at home.

If you have no Italian cookbooks and like pasta (and you have no interest in creating a library of Italian cookbooks), then I think this should be the very next cookbook you buy. If you simply like attractive cookbooks, then you certainly cannot miss this one, as it is relatively inexpensive and will take up little room on your shelf. I have even almost forgiven it's not having an INDEX!!!

This book is fantastic! I bought it when I lived in Rome, and had heard of Diane's work through a friend from St. George's school. The recipes are easy to follow, authentic, and duplicate only the best of the pastas my wife and I enjoyed in Italy. Yesterday I tried the Spaghetti Maria Grazia for the first time, and it was unbelievably good. I'm going to order her other two books, soon.

A well-written, beautiful book on the topic of *real* Italian pasta. If you think of pasta as a pile of noodles drenched in a slow-cooked red sauce, this book will open your eyes to the possibility of quick, tasty sauces of all sorts. It also includes both metric and "standard" measurements of the ingedients, a great help to international users. The tomato/orange sauce is wonderfull with sausage ravioli!

This is a wonderful, simple book of the most authentic Italian pasta sauces you will find. The author is English, but has lived in Italy for many years. Having also traveled to Italy, I can attest to the authenticity of the recipes--I make them and they take me back to harborside trattorias. These recipes are not for people who enjoy Chef Boyardee Spaghetti and Meatballs--they are for people who enjoyed the movie "Big Night." Most recipes are healthy in the Mediterranean style--but many are decidedly not low fat. My only suggestion would be to include lower fat ingredient alternatives, but you can do that yourself.

So many authentic recipes...Most SO SIMPLE. The key is to use the best ingredients. I make a pasta dish from this book at least once a week. It is my most used cookbook!

This book is easy to follow and has great tasting authentic regional Itialian recipies. This cookbook is one of the best and most used in my kitchen.

Simply the best cookbook I own. This is what Italian cooking is all about. Simple, unpretentious, delicious, and fun. This is how Italian families eat. I love the "peasant" dishes. There are too many fantastic recipes to mention just one. The penne and cauliflower is one that stands out as unusual and FANTASTIC! My wife and I just pick out a recipe, put on some music, light some candles, pour some chianti, and make a date of it. I cannot say enough about this book. If you're considering a cookbook on Italian food, DON'T HESITATE! Thank you Diane Seed.

Although the recipes in this book are relatively straightforward, they just don't produce the most flavorful sauces. I have tried quite a few of the recipes and none of them has really produced a sauce I was thrilled with. I have tried recipes for the same sauces out of other cookbooks (especially Marcella Hazen's Classic Italian Cooking) and invariably liked the results better. I really wouldn't recommend this one.