Matchmaking
August 2007“The Top One Hundred Pasta Sauces”
Diane Seed (Ten Speed Press)
Pasta is the anti-jazz: Improvisation destroys it. If you want something as good as you could get in Italy, you have to follow a recipe. Religiously.
Diane Seed’s recipes may not always be what the Pope would order, but they are by far the most accessible I have found collected between two cardboard covers. They range all over the map of Italy with a good mix of pantry staples (tuna, walnuts, chickpeas) and super-fresh ingredients (basil, asparagus, arugula), with a minimum of posturing. Giuliano Bugialli admittedly dictates a superior bucatini all’amatriciana, but Seed’s is quicker and almost as satisfying. Hers is the book to open for an easy meal, not a production.
“Sauces” is no walk in Tuscany. It has no index, which is frustrating, and measurements are given in metric first, U.S. equivalent second, which can be off-putting. But all the sauces are grouped by main ingredient, and few involve more than a handful of steps to perfection. Just do what she says, nothing more or less.