My Cooking Class Pasta Basics

Owing to the popularity of food-focused TV programming, the effective arrangement of the “My Cooking Class” series (which also includes Steaming, Chocolate, Middle Eastern, and Pasta Basics) will have you wondering why it has taken cookbooks so long to get visual. Beyond a one-page preface, an ingredient index, and concisely measured instructions, you won’t find much text here, but this does not mean the books lack detail. Each recipe is pictured step-by-step with the crisply reductive clarity of a minimalist still life…. This series of stripped-down pictorials worth a thousand words is the missing link between elementally vague text-based cookbooks and video instruction you can’t slow down enough or take into the kitchen. Elegant design you can’t help but devour. Highly recommended for all experience levels.– (01/01/2011)Pasta Basics … leaves no stone unturned. You’ll learn how to make a variety of pastas and whip up a rainbow of sauces. Recipes for such succulent dishes as eggplant macaroni and fusili with pepper sauce are at your fingertips. If fish and meat are your preferences, recipes for spaghetti with fresh tuna, anchovy and onion spaghettini, veal ragout timbale and lamb maltagliati will surely appeal. As well, there are mouth-watering recipes for salads, lasagna, stuffed pasta and gnocchi.– (11/25/2010)This is a series by various authors with complete (and I mean complete) step-by-step and how-to colour photos to describe every conceivable step in every conceivable process. Each with 70 to 97 recipes. These books are extremely clear in presentation, right down to photos of egg yolks (with every other ingredient) so you don’t accidentally reach for, say, Palmolive dishwashing soup when you should be making Bearnaise sauce. Some might think the series is too dumbed-down but, at only $25 a copy, I think these books are perfect for entry-level cooks who want to move beyond Kraft Dinner to discover that homemade lasagna does not always have to be made with dried gypsum board. I’d be tempted to give the whole set as a gift to the right person.– (11/25/2010)This series includes books on Pasta, Vegetable, Chocolate, Sauce, Steaming, Middle Eastern, and Indian Basics. Each book includes 60-100 recipes, each with not just an image of the finished product, but photos of every step. Perfect for the family chef, foodie, or cookbook collector.– (01/03/2013)

Originally from Venice, Laura Zavan is a chef, food stylist, instructor, culinary consultant and a regular contributor to France’s Regal and Elle magazines.