To the contrary, some pasta books may contain recipes that smack against all that is familiar and anticipated and, again, could a painting. My latest read Pasta, a Passion by the trio of Nina Dryer Hensley, Jim Hensley and Paul Lowe combines the elements of examining a culinary giant with some honest interpretation of classics and some unexpected recipes, all splashed with plenty of color. Admittedly, taking on the gargantuan ingredient of pasta is certainly a David and Goliath task. Everybody knows how to make pasta. And peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
Pasta ranks with apple pie and pot roast as traditional fare.
So the cantankerous cook opens up the sleek spiral-bound Pasta, a Passion with some hesitation. A brief introduction on fresh versus dry pastas is succinct, but adequate, and leads into a few vignettes on fresh herbs, and the recipes. The first recipe that the author-team throws at us is Asian Noodle salad. Most unexpected, I was sure that I was in for a lesson on multi-ethnicity and embracing every single culture's influence on pasta, or vice versa. A tasty recipe, nonetheless, just not anticipated.