Maureen Fant

Harvard Book Store is pleased to welcome food writer MAUREEN FANT for a discussion of her latest cookbook, Sauces & Shapes: Pasta the Italian Way.

Pasta is so universally popular in the United States that it can justifiably be called an American food. This book makes the case for keeping it Italian with recipes for sauces and soups as cooked in Italian homes today. There are authentic versions of such favorites as carbonara, bolognese, marinara, and Alfredo, as well as plenty of unusual but no less traditional sauces, based on roasts, ribs, rabbit, clams, eggplant, arugula, and mushrooms, to name but a few.

Anyone who cooks or eats pasta needs this book. The straightforward recipes are easy enough for the inexperienced, but even professional chefs will grasp the elegance of their simplicity.

Cooking pasta the Italian way means:

• Keep your eye on the pot, not the clock.
• Respect tradition, but don’t be a slave to it.
• Choose a compatible pasta shape for your sauce or soup, but remember they aren’t matched by computer. (And that angel hair goes with broth, not sauce.)
• Use the best ingredients you can find—and you can find plenty on the Internet.
• Resist the urge to embellish, add, or substitute. But minor variations usually enhance a dish.
• How much salt? Don’t ask, taste!

Serving and eating pasta the Italian way means:

• Use a spoon for soup, not for twirling spaghetti.
• Learn to twirl; never cut.
• Never add too much cheese, and often add none at all.
• Toss the cheese and pasta before adding the sauce.
• Warm the dishes.Serve pasta alone. The salad comes after.
• To be perfectly proper, use a plate, not a bowl.

"Picking up where the Encyclopedia of Pasta (2009) left off, this manifesto on Italian noodles is meant to provide recipes for home cooks preparing dishes in modern kitchens. While the previous work focused on cataloguing and describing Italian pasta, this book is meant to help those out outside of Italy cook like Italians.” —Publishers Weekly