All About Pasta and Noodles

by Irma S. Rombauer, Marion Rombauer Becker, Ethan Becker

This guide combines classic dishes with the very best in contemporary cooking, and is organized into chapters that include how to prepare fresh pasta, sauces, filled and baked pastas, American noodle dishes, Asian noodles, dumplings and more, incorporating more than 90 of "Joy of Cooking"'s best-loved recipes. There are foolproof rules for cooking pasta to perfection and step-by-step instructions for making your own.

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Nonfiction

Hardcover

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

In 1931, a St. Louis widow named Irma von Starkloff Rombauer took her life savings and self-published a book called The Joy of Cooking. Her daughter, Marion, tested recipes and made the illustrations, and they sold their mother-daughter project from Irma's apartment.

Reviews

[Tamara · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to know how to make pasta from scratch and didn't trust the Internets to tell me.

The Upside

The fresh egg pasta recipe (and the whole-wheat pasta variation) included a simple, full description of how to make and roll the dough that was perfect for my needs.

Also gives clear instructions based on whether you're hand-kneading or using a food processor as well as whether you're hand-rolling or using a hand-cranked pasta machine.

And it includes drying instructions.

The Downside

Man, this book is snobby. Rules for cooking pasta include not breaking the pasta before cooking, throwing out soft or mushy pasta and warming up dishes in the oven before serving. Um, no. I've broken all of these rules and have lived to tell the tale.

[Jann]

Cookbooks are always fun to look at. I got one recipe out of this book that I continue to use. It's a recipe for puttanesca sauce like the kids in the series of unfortunate events make. I really like it.
Recommend: anyone who likes to cook

[Bonnie Jean · Rating 3 out of 5]

For some reason, not finding this one really inspiring. It's decent- I did find a few recipes I'd make from it- but not something I'd really use much.