Customer Reviews

365 Ways to Cook Pasta

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If your idea of pasta is lukewarm spaghetti with watery sauce from a can, then take a look at Marie Simmons' 365 Ways to Cook Pasta. Here, you can find everything from basic cooking directions to classics to desserts, all presented in an easy-to-read format and arranged by type of dish (i.e., pasta salad, quick-cook sauces, Italian and Asian dishes, healthy meals.) I use this book 3 out of 4 times when I cook, and have not even come close to exhausting its possibilities!

365 Ways to Cook Pasta would be perfect for a beginning cook, as none of the recipes (as far as I have found) are impossible, and many of them give you a solid basis for your own creativity in the kitchen. I think veterans would like to have this book around as well, for a reference and source of ideas. A must for any '90s cook!

I am a dedicated home cook and I also work as a personal cook for a private client. I rely on this book again and again for unique and delicious pasta recipes. I have not made anything from this book that has been a dud, in fact, I often don't even bother to taste for seasoning adjustment--it's that precise and on-key. Like the reviewer below, I haven't gotten anywhere near to exhausting the possibilities, and every time I open the book I have a hard time deciding which direction to go in because they all look so good!

And just to clarify, when I say "unique" recipes, I don't mean things that require you to make a trip to a specialty market, like burdock, or fava beans. At random, here are five recipe titles to give you an idea: Lamb Stew with Herbed Elbows; Seafood Lasagne; Rigatoni with Cauliflower and Garlic-Anchovy Oil; Creamy Tuna Sauce with Capers and Lemon; and Spinach-Stuffed Manicotti with Red Pepper Bechamel Sauce. Oh, and let's not forget dessert! How about Lemon-Scented Pastina Souffle? Or Couscous, Dried Fruit and Honey Pudding?

If you turn to pasta as part of your cooking repetoire, you must have this cookbook on your shelf. There, don't I make decision making easy?

I picked up my copy in 1990 when I was in college and haven't stopped using it. As a college student my favorite dish was the fresh tomato, basil and ricotta sauce on ziti. Yum! When I was a nanny for a California family with California taste, recipes like the spaghetti with blue cheese and walnuts saved my fanny. And now that I'm married and cook for my extended family, one of my favorite potluck dishes is the "light and easy" Salad of Penne and Chicken with Spinach and Buttermilk Dressing. My family loves it too.

I love the spiral binding and hard cover that lay flat. The different chapters ("Asian Connection," "No-Cook Sauces") etc. make for good browsing. And I like that many additions are offered too.

Lots of times I pull out a variety of things from my fridge and cupboard and then go to this cookbook to figure out what to make. For example, if I had leftover spaghetti, some eggs, and a handful of veggies to chop up, I could bang out a delicious spaghetti frittata that I know my family would love.

This cookbook has been a staple in my kitchen for 11 years and has held up wonderfully!

I found this book at a flea market, took it home and made really tasty, easy meals, soups, side dishes, puddings and breakfast.

No pretty photos just 365 easy recipes!

I Served number #201 "Spaghetti With Tomatoes, Bacon, and Onions" to guests,(I added Red Pepper flacks, roasted red peppers and portabella mushrooms because I like them) and got rave reviews.

#236 " Tricolor Bell Pepper Sauce with Imported Black Olives and Anchovies" was wonderful.

#84 "Spaghetti with lemon butter" is super easy to make and a great side dish for shrimp.

#209 Linguine Tuna Black olives & Tomatoes, M-m-m-m.
I melted cheese over this one.

I have NOT put on a pound. I watch the amount of pasta I eat and feel up on all the goodies.
I have gone to Amazon and bought this book for friends and family.

This cookbook is one of the most often used of my collection of 100+. The "Emergency Dinners" chapter is wonderful! It includes a list of 16 staples, regular stuff, like olive oil and onions and bacon. These staples are combined in various ways to make the 16 recipes in the chapter, all of them delicious and very quickly prepared, great for unexpected weeknight dinner guests. Many of the recipes in the "Italian Classics" chapter are as easy and quick to prepare as the emergency dinners, and are as good as versions I've had in Italian restaurants. In fact, every chapter includes recipes that are easy to prepare, although some require longer cooking times. The "American Classics" and "Elbows" chapters include a bunch of variations on macaroni and cheese, and may be helpful in getting kids to eat more vegetables, and some unfamiliar ingredients.

Organized by size and shape, this book is always in our kitchen, with probably 4-5 of our all-time favorites which we cook over and over and over. Valuable one to give, which is how we got ours.

I have had this book for years. Its publication date is 1988. I have had it at least 10 years, long before a low carb life style was thought to be a good thing. When I was going through all my cook books the other day I came accross this book of generally very easy and some surprizingly elegant pasta recipes some that can be made quickly for company.

First the good:

With a fair number of these recipes you can produce a hearty comfort-type entree with with mostly pantry type ingredients. Who would have thought that spaghetti with parsley butter (spaghetti, butter, garlic, parsley) can make a satisfying and elegant entree? Well I didnt. But it does. And it makes and even better first course, lunch or side dish. The same goes for Spaghetti with walnuts and parmesan (spaghetti, olive oil, garlic, walnuts, parmesan, parlsey...and add blue cheese to this one if you like). throughout this book are simple put-toghether dishes like this that you can add to your usual stable of week night dinners for variety. Other examples of these simple recipes are spaghetti with lemon butter and peas, elbows with butter, parmesan and peas, and fetticcini with tuna and peas.

On the more exotic side are a rabbit sauce for your pasta, a cavier and pasta concoction and a section an asian noodles. Quite a few of all of the dishes are on the rich (read calorie laden) side... One chapter with no cook sauces is a bit lighter. The dessert section is very sweet and very rich.
I think a lot of these recipes could be *lightened up* with alternate products... fat free half and half instead of cream, fat free milk instead of milk, egg substitute instead of eggs..low fat cheeses, etc.

On the plus side..there are many many recipes to choose from, many with things you already have at home. On the minus side, without reworking some of these...its a cholestol nightmare (no, not all of them...but a good number) It fairly easy to read. A nice font, easy directions. Suggestions to change the basic recipes... Alternate ingredient choices. very nice. Thankfully no screaming elbow macaroni cartoons running from smiling pots of boiling water.

A minus here I need to note...having had the book for so long...Its not exactly a spiral, more like a loose leaf that holds punched pages...but some of the holes have ripped like they would in your school binder. Or they just dont stay where they should any more. Essentially i have one ring holding in all the pages now. Not a good thing for all the pages. In a few years, I think I will just have pages and that will be just a big mess.

Times have changed and tastes have changed. There is an appreciation for a lighter style of cooking. Its hard to say if I would buy this when the last ring goes and pasta recipes fall all over my kitchen. I can't say that this hasnt been helpful, because any cookbook that helps me make a dinner out of what i already have, is a help. I think I will only know what I will do when the time comes because this truly was a mixed bag.

I can see this being a good book for someone who does alot of pantry cooking. Someone just starting out because the recipes are very simple (well alot of them) and most take a minimum of ingredients and prep. Or someone interested in a good volume of only pasta dishes.

Without a doubt, my favorite recipe book. I am not a greatcook. Yet I have been able to make some fabulous dishes with thisbook. The roasted red bell pepper sauce is to die for! Great ideas for gorgonzola and more! I am buying it as a wedding gift for a nephew.

I'm Italian, and I love to cook Italian food. In fact, we don't like to go to Italian chain restaurants anymore because we can make it much better (and cheaper) at home. I'll admit, I'm an Italian cooking snob [kinda]. Based on this, I have multiple cookbooks dealing only with pasta. And when I saw this at a yard sale, I figured it was worth a shot.

That said, when I'm making pasta, this is probably the last cookbook I reach for. It has more recipes in it than my other resources do, but I think I've only used a recipe from it once. It would be good for the beginner. But if you have the skill, for instance, to start with garden tomatoes and finish with your own sauce, you should try some of the classier (and less dated) books out there.

I bought this cookbook as I own several others (like 7) in the 365 Ways series and because I'm Sicilian & LOVE carbs. I wasn't too impressed, a lot of the recipes start off using the same ingredients then add an ingredient and call it a whole new recipe, etc., etc. If you like fish then maybe this one is for you, I don't eat fish at all & a lot of the recipes call for it in their ingredients. There isn't a section on casseroles either, I was expecting more of those or what to do with leftover cold pasta if you happened to cook too much one night, well, that happened to me and I got fed up looking through the book for a recipe & just created my own recipe from items that were in the fridge.

This one's a risk, you really need to look at it before you buy.