The Silver Spoon Pasta

This collection of 300 pasta recipes adapted from previous books from the Silver Spoon Kitchen offers serious pasta aficionados an exhaustive reference guide to regional Italian cooking. Divided into dried pasta (short and long) and fresh pasta (cut and filled), each shape gets a brief intro with a glimpse into its provenance. Hollow bucatini, for example, hails from central Italy and is well paired with an Amatriciana sauce of tomato and pancetta, though in Sicily it is more often combined with sardines and wild fennel. Region-specific shapes include round cappellacci and hat-shaped cappelletti from Emilia-Romagna; casônsèi, “half-moon-shaped” parcels from Lombardy; and tordelli, a filled pasta from Tuscany. There are also multiple variations on classic dishes; for example, Lasagna Bolognese is followed by seafood lasagna, pumpkin lasagna, and radicchio lasagna. Most recipes are short and general and expect a level of expertise from home cooks, calling for trimmed artichokes, scaled sardines, and shaved truffles, largely without instruction. With only a few photos and no introductions expounding on flavor profiles, readers are left to imagine what, for example, to expect from the cocoa powder in cocoa tagliarini. Still, the value here is the vast scope, with an extensive index proving especially useful. For its sheer breadth, this compendium will be a worthy addition to the pasta lover’s library. (Feb.)