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The Geometry of Pasta
Wheels and tubes, twists and folds and grooves—pasta comes in hundreds of shapes, each with its own unique history, beauty, and place on the dinner table. For centuries these shapes have evolved alongside Italy’s cornucopia of local ingredients; if you know how the flavours relate to the forms, you hold the secret formula to good taste.
The Geometry of Pasta pairs over 100...more
The Geometry of Pasta pairs over 100...more
Hardcover, 256 pages
Published
September 15th 2010
by Quirk Books
(first published May 7th 2010)
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Useless.. More like a reference, for looking up recipes based on the type of pasta you’re holding in your hand (the book is organized by type of pasta). What I wanted was a book that would be more of a guide, explain how all the different types of pasta evolved, and how to use the shapes of pasta. Instead, what it is is an encyclopedia, where you first look up the type of pasta, then get a brief rundown on it, followed by recipes for that pasta. I want a pasta book, not another damn recipe book....more
Part recipe book, part food history and part design exercise; this book was an absolute delight. Apparently the dream project of Caz Hildebrand, a graphic designer, she sought out Jacob Kenedy to provide the text and recipes.
The book is ordered alphabetically, with each modern style of Italian pasta represented by its own entry. These entries give a brief description and history of the pasta together with a stark, bold black and white illustration of the pasta shape drawn to life size. Accompany...more
The book is ordered alphabetically, with each modern style of Italian pasta represented by its own entry. These entries give a brief description and history of the pasta together with a stark, bold black and white illustration of the pasta shape drawn to life size. Accompany...more
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6/14/2012: I love the title, and I was hoping this book would regale me with pasta history and stories about the huge variety of pasta shapes and names. There's a bit of this (why are strozzapreti--"priest stranglers"--so named? what is the derivation of the word "gnocchi"?). But really, TGOP is a combination cookbook and art book, a dictionary of pasta types with recipes that work well for each type, with each kind of pasta represented with black and white graphic representations.
The writing i...more
The writing i...more
As an expat in Naples, I have eaten an authentic Italian pasta dish, or two. Although there are other, better, general purpose books on Italian (and Neapolitan) cooking, this book excels in the narrowness of its focus - pasta and the accompanying sauce, only. This book - much like the average Italian supermercato - has more varieties of pasta and sauce than the average American could possibly recognize. This book also demonstrates the traditional pairings of sauce, ingredients, and pasta type, a...more
Drying the pasta my flatmate and I made to go with the Wild Boar (or beef, as we couldn't find wild boar) ragu, both delicious recipes from this book. The illustrations are also lovely, it's a very stylish book :)
This is a curious book. I was curious about all the different names for all the different shapes of Italian pasta so I bought this text. Now I am even more confused. It seems that each region in Italy has its own name for many of the classic pasta shapes. Jacob Kenedy, who runs an Italian restaurant in London, wrote an excellent text detailing the history of each shape, describing how it is made, and suggesting a few recipes in which to use each. Caz Hildebrand drew remarkable black-and-white gr...more
This isn't exactly the book I thought it would be. It is a reciepe book for tons of different sauces. But more importantly, it is a book describing tons of pasta shapes. How to make them, or should you buy them, what sauce goes best with them, and the history of each shape. Coupled with the amazing illustrations of the pasta, this book is a wonderful addition to an italian lovers cookbook collection. Pick it up for the illustrations if nothing else.
Fantastic book, though don't judge it as a straight cookbook. Recipes are good but not very unique or exclusive. Some might even be in Kenedy's other book. But the writing is witty, illustrations great and stories about each pasta shape engaging.
Who knew there were so many types of pasta? Now I have some kind of idea of what pasta goes with what sauce. An interesting combination of the history of different types of pasta and recipes.
I was expecting something scientific or abstract, but this is really an encyclopedic work on the hundreds of varieties of pasta and the practical matters of how to make them and how to prepare them. It is not quite a cookbook, though there are many recipes, but rather a sort of cook's reference book. This is a book to be kept on the kitchen bookshelf. It has a certain amount of browsing potential, but the pleasure is soon worn down by the sheer vastness of the subject.
I have never made anything from this book that did not turn out absolutely delicious. it's not just pasta but includes countless sauces.
I'm not really into the recipes in this book, but I loved the design, artwork, and the descriptions of each type of pasta.
As heard on the NPR Books podcast.
Pasta in plan! Pasta in section!
A fascinating book with gorgeous black and white graphics of pasta shapes instead of photos--it goes A to Z through more pastas than I ever knew existed, with the history and use of each shape, along with recipes. A tutorial on the basics of pasta making. If you are a pasta fan, this is one for your coffee table or bedside table, to savor the science, history and philosophy behind the different pasta shapes, Fascinating!
I will be reviewing this on my blog next week with one of the recipes.
I will be reviewing this on my blog next week with one of the recipes.
I haven't made any recipes yet - but this is a gorgeous cookbooks, full of delicious dreams for a winters night.
This is a cool book. It covers tons of different types of pasta and how to make them, and includes lots of good recipes on what to do with it. I tried the walnut cream sauce already. It was good.
In addition to being a cookbook, The Geometry of Pasta includes thoughtful explanations of the origins of pasta shapes, pasta and sauce recipes, and which pastas hold which sauces best.
Good looking, stylish book (not important), sparse, intelligent commentary (nice),
quite a few interesting, well described recipes (important) but not that many (three stars).
quite a few interesting, well described recipes (important) but not that many (three stars).
May 05, 2013
Jennifer Lindley
marked it as to-read
May 04, 2013
stormy
marked it as to-read
Apr 29, 2013
Sebastien Desnoyers
is currently reading it
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Born in London in 1980 to an artistic family (his mother is the renowned artist, Haidee Becker, father a cellist, David Kenedy), he was educated at Westminster School and then St John’s, Cambridge. In the second year of his degree he read History and Philosophy of Science, and in his third Disease, Society and Sexuality – a study of the relationship between man, medicine and disease. In the long O...more
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