pasta

Pasta
$12.95
I have two books that I find I go to more than any other cookbook when I want really really good pasta: this one, and the Complete Book of Pasta and Noodles. However, if I want gourmet but time is in a crunch, I always reach for this one alone.

The book is broken up into recipes of No cook, Quick Cook, and Slow Cook so you can decide what you want to choose from based upon your time to be a cook. If you want gourmet taste with no time, the expansive recipes for amazing pestos is worth the cost of the book alone.

The book is further divided into what you might have in the pantry such as eggplant and pasta dishes, mushroom and pasta, steak, chicken, seafood, etc etc

There is a photo for EVERY recipe which also helps decsion-making and the pages are nice glossy stock and beautifully photographed.

Here's a few of the dishes we have enjoyed:
the fillings for ravioli and the pestos (you can use wonton wrappers for ravioli in a pinch but we also make our own sometimes)

so many good pastas...butter, parmesan, and asparagus, spicy eggplant with garlic, spicy garlic scallops, basil and pinenuts, mushroom garlic and parsley (that one is a lasagna)...in fact they have several kinds of lasagna including good ol fashioned lasagna and spinach, gorgonzola and pinenut lasagna...back to other pastas and things: chicken with lemon and mushrooms, smoked salmon with white wine cream and chives, and we've had all kinds of great tomato sauces from the book.

There are lots of recipes and variations and the directions are easy to follow and the ingredients easy to find.

Whether you make your own pasta or have a few minutes to boil it and get something that tastes like it took all day onto your table, I think this book can be a hit. We've enjoyed so many great dishes from it and have even used a few dishes at dinner parties to rave reviews.

The Complete Book of Pasta and Noodles
$19.95
Information in this book has been invaluable for making homemade pasta. Their research has saved me the trial and errors that normally accompany learning a new cooking technique. I'm anxious to try some of the sauces as well.

Dreamfields Rotini
$2.59
This pasta really does what it says - has a low impact on blood sugar. I found the spaghetti a little too chewy for my taste, but the rotini is great. Try it with Ragu Light Parmesan Alfredo sauce. Delicious! I can't find it in the stores in my city, so thanks Amazon!

Villaware V177 Al Dente Pasta Machine
$29.99
I read all the reviews before buying this item.
I just got through wrestling with it during my first effort at making pasta for ravioli. The clamp, which is absolutely necessary to use the machine, is poorly designed. If the manufacturer had invested a few pennies more, the clamp would have had rubber contacts, preventing it from coming off as easily as it did with every few turns of the crank.
Other than that frustration, the pasta came out perfectly.