The Italian cookbook Toscanini Pasta is an instant classic
Well, when one of your favorite Italian restaurants publishes a cookbook, it’s hard to go wrong. But Maud Moody and Leonardo Pacenti of restaurant Toscanini have outdone themselves with their new cookbook Toscanini Pasta – which puts the enormous variety of pasta dishes in the spotlight. It’s an instant classic that every lover of Italian cuisine will want to have on their shelf.
I consider The Bible of Italian Cuisine from the same kitchen a top book, but in terms of design it does remain within the framework of the Bible series. Toscanini Pasta doesn’t have those boundaries and therefore follows its own path, with clean typography and photography. I think the choice to feature perhaps the simplest recipe in the book, which we’re sharing with you right away: spaghetti aglio, olio & peperoncino, on the cover is fantastic. Unconventional and with a story.
Toscanini’s Spaghetti AOP
Spaghetti AOP, as Moody & Pacenti call it, is a favorite of both. Moody first tasted it in Tuscany at the home of friends who didn’t have much, and was skeptical beforehand. Almost bare spaghetti? Until she took a bite – and that’s how AOP earned a place on the cookbook cover years later.
Toscanini cooks with what’s available
Pacenti also opens the book with a beautiful personal story. The half-Italian chef grew up during Apartheid in South Africa, which meant people had to be creative. Italian food was cooked at home without the products that define the cuisine, simply because they weren’t imported. ‘That’s how I discovered at an early age that tradition doesn’t mean you always do everything the same way. Recipes adapt to the location and the possibilities,’ Pacenti says in the foreword. At restaurant Toscanini, the couple takes the same approach, cooking with what’s available.
A tavola!
In my view, that’s a beautiful lesson you can also apply to the book. With almost three hundred pages of recipes alone (in addition to beautiful background information about history, ingredients and kitchen utensils), there has to be something in there that you can pull straight from the kitchen cupboard, but if not, you can also get creative with it.
Enough chatter, time to taste. These are the dishes you’ll want to make right away:
And then buy that book, because I promise you: this is an instant classic that belongs in the kitchen of every lover of Italian cuisine.
Title: Toscanini
Author: Maud Moody & Leonardo Pacenti
Price: €35
Publisher: Carrera Culinair
Also read:
- Olive oil in pasta water: fact or fiction?
- 10x the best tips for pasta
- First aid for cheese emergencies
Source: Italiamo
