The Authentic PASTA Book;

The Authentic Pasta Book puts pasta into its best, most authentic, versatile, and exciting context. Pasta is at the heart of Italian cooking, and Italian cooking at heart is regional. Author Fred Plotkin offers pasta in concert with other regional ingredients. Here are the herb-filled ponsoti of Liguria in their traditional walnut sauce, Christmas Eve cheese tortelloni from Bologna and pizzoccheri - buckwheat pasta with potatoes, cabbage, and Fontina cheese - from the Valtellina. From Tuscany there is papperdelle with Squab; from Rome, fettuccine with radicchio. In the southern regions great use is made of mussels, clams, and shrimp; charming butterfly-shaped pasta is flavored with saffron, and lasagna is layered with a savory eggplant filling. Opera also is close to Italy's heart and provides the other theme of this book. Fred Plotkin is Performance Manager at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, a position that gave him the opportunity to collect favorite pasta recipes from some of opera's greatest stars - including Luciano Pavarotti's spaghetti alla carbonara, Renata Scotto's rigatoni all'amatriciana, and Kiri Te Kanawa's spaghetti with green prawns. Basic sauces and simple, fast, and often low-calorie dishes from all over Italy, found in "Interregional" recipes, and some of the author's own creations as well as other contemporary recipes, found in "Vari Capricci", complete The Authentic Pasta Book's collection of recipes. Finally, this definitive pasta cookbook offers clear instructions on pasta making, advice for the novice pasta cook, and a guide to ingredients, Italian regional wines, and equipment.