Manuela Zangara - Homemade Pasta Made Simple: A Pasta Cookbook with Easy Recipes & Lessons to Make Fresh Pasta Any Night

Copyright 2017 by Manuela Zangara

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Photography Paul S. Bartholomew/Offset, cover; The Picture Pantry/Stockfood, (background).

Illustrations Tom Bingham 2017

ISBN: Print 978-1-62315-918-4 | eBook 978-1-62315-919-1

To Clint, Victoria, and Georgia for always believing in me.

Your support and unconditional love are my strength. Thank you for being my taste testers and guinea pigsI am glad you never tire of pasta!

G ROWING UP, I REMEMBER eagerly awaiting the weekend, when my parents and I would often make pasta at home. In the kitchen of our apartment in Milan, we would make lasagna sheets, pappardelle, tortellini, and all sorts of different pasta. And while we were working on the pasta, a pot full of pasta sauce would always be simmering away on the stove, filling the whole house with its delicious aroma.

Even now that I am a grown-up, I still associate pasta making with family time and a pervasive sense of comfort. Preparing pasta from scratchturning flour, eggs, and water into something beautiful and different every timeis an act of love. It requires passion, time, and a little effort, but it is not at all difficult. On the contrary, it can be incredibly easy and even relaxing. In fact, it is something that can be turned into a family ritual, an activity to share with the kids and get them involved in the process. I am sure they will have lots of fun getting their hands dirty with flour and manipulating pieces of dough, just like I used to as a child in Milan.

Italians have been making pasta at home for ages. Pasta being a poor mans dish, people would often use whatever ingredients they had available and whatever was cheapest. The best part is that many of the recipes have been passed down from one generation to the next and are deeply rooted in the local areas. This is why there are so many regional variations of shapes, ingredients, and stuffing. Something as simple as ravioli can be completely different in Friuli than in Sardinia.

I know that nowadays ready-made pasta is easily available, but like all things, the satisfaction of eating something made from scratch makes your own fresh pasta taste better. After all, your love and care is in there, right? Besides, you dont need to rely on the shapes the store has in stock: They dont have orecchiette? No drama, we can make some in just a few steps and with just two ingredients! Wait, what? Its true. You need only two ingredients!

People who have little or no experience in making pasta at home often ask me how to do it. What are the techniques they should learn? The task seems so overwhelming that they dont know how to begin. This book makes the process less intimidating through introductory lessons and tutorials that help you truly understand how pasta is made. Its been designed for beginners, with the attention to detail and clarity you need to master the basic skills of pasta making and start whipping up your own fresh pasta every night of the week.

In this step-by-step guide to the craft of homemade pasta, I will gradually lead you through all pasta-making techniques, from the easier ones to those that will require you to put into practice the skills you have developed. I will also go through the equipment and ingredients needed, and you will be surprised to learn that you dont require anything fancy to start creating your pasta shapes. I am also ready to bet that you already have all the ingredients you require in your pantry. No need to go out and buy expensive stuff from the store. You will also be provided with foolproof basic pasta dough recipes that are so easy to make, you will be able to memorize and master them in no time!

The recipe chapters are divided by type of pastahand-shaped pasta, ribbon-cut pasta, stuffed pasta, and gnocchi and gnudiwith a final chapter offering fabulous sauce recipes that will give you the freedom to mix and match as you please. By the end of the book, you will be making pasta like a pro!

Discover how easy (and fun!) it is to make pasta from scratch. Dont be intimidated: Making pasta at home is as simple as eating it!