2024 the best spaghetti sauce recipes review

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In On Top of Spaghetti, Johanne Killeen and George Germon, owners of the legendary restaurant Al Forno in Providence, R.I., and authors of Cucina Simpatica, offer up 100 new recipes for everyone's favorite tried–and–true dish –– pasta.

Pasta is the culinary equivalent of the little black dress. It's simple and elegant, you can dress it up or down, and it never goes out of style. In On Top of Spaghetti, Johanne Killeen and George Germon present a collection of 100 pasta recipes, including new and old favorites such as Pasta Shells with Spicy Sausage Red Sauce, Fusilli with Roasted Red Pepper Pesto, and Spaghetti with Tomatoes, Cinnamon, and Mint. In Cucina Simpatica, Johanne and George introduced Americans to grilled pizza. With On Top of Spaghetti they will reintroduce home cooks to the joys of pasta. Classic recipes are elevated to new heights, and innovative new dishes are sure to be returned to again and again.

Publisher ‏ : ‎ William Morrow Cookbooks; First Edition (October 24, 2006)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 264 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0060598735
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0060598730
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.6 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 8 x 0.97 x 9.25 inches
Reviewer: B. Marold
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Excellent 'single subject' cookbook. Buy it.
Review: `On Top of Spaghetti...' by Providence, Rhode Island chef/restaurateurs, JoHanne Killeen and George Germon is a delightfully dedicated pasta cookbook by two dedicated pasta lovers. As the subtitle indicates, this is really about `...Macaroni, Linguine, Penne, and Pasta of Every Kind', although the long thin varieties of dried pasta, spaghetti, linguini, spaghettini, and similar shapes seem to get the most attention.The most delightful thing about this book for me is the fact that every recipe is an Italian style pasta recipe, and yet there is no space taken up by the classics which appear in every other book on Italian cooking, such as spaghetti carbonara, pasta puttanesca, Bolognese sauce, and fettuccine Alfredo. Virtually all recipes are both original to the authors, but based on classic Italian models. That means, of course that while spaghetti carbonara and pasta puttanesca aren't here, there are pasta recipes with raw egg or olives and anchovies as ingredients.There is a sense in which the book can be seen as an exploration of all the different ways in which a few classic Italian ingredients can be combined into a pasta sauce. The emphasis in this book is on the simpler combinations. One of the more attractive features of the book is identifying fifteen (15) recipes as `Midnight Spaghetti' where the time required to make the sauce is no more than the time, usually 7 to 12 minutes, to cook the pasta.I was just a bit put off by the glib title, as it smacked of the kind of gimmicky books usually done as tie-ins to Italian-American `family dramas' like `The Sopranos' or `The Godfather'. When I realized the book was written by the owners of Al Forno, I gave it some serious thought, as this is one of the very few restaurants outside of New York, San Francisco, New Orleans, Chicago, and Los Angles which has a national reputation, and it isn't even a pizza parlor, for which Providence, RI is justly famous.The book begins with a `Pasta Pantry' which is a fairly ordinary recitation of classic Italian ingredients with two very surprising additions. These are recipes for making fresh ricotta and ricotta infornata (baked ricotta) at home. I was impressed when I saw Tyler Florence make mozzarella in a home kitchen. Ricotta impresses me even more, and knowing how to do these is not trivial, as both types of cheese really must be used when they are very fresh.In the pantry section and in various recipes, the authors even have interesting things about that most common of ingredients, the tomato. I recently learned that the fried green tomatoes recipe was developed to use the end of the season fruit which will never turn red on its own, due to the diminishing sunlight. I now discover that the Italians were there first, with their own battery of recipes for green tomatoes. Killeen and Germon provide us with three green tomato recipes. I'm humbled by the fact that I'm noticing this for the first time, when the prominent writer on Italian cooking, Faith Willinger, also has recipes for green tomatoes in her `Red, White, and Greens' book.In every regard, the book is true to everything I ever read or heard about cooking pasta from certifiable Italian cooking authorities, including the stricture that you don't drop the pasta into the boiling water until everyone is seated at the table.Once we get past the introductory chapters, there are nine chapters of recipes, six using dried pasta, two using fresh pasta, and a chapter on how to make fresh pasta. These chapters are:Pasta with Vegetables, Legumes, and HerbsPasta with Tomato SaucesPasta with SeafoodPasta with Poultry, Meat, and RabbitPasta with Egg and CheeseBaked PastaFresh PastaRavioliLasagnaThe first chapter is by far the longest, and is mostly involved with mixing and matching the same small set of ingredients.One of my more interesting discoveries was the several recipes which combine pasta with potatoes. I can hear the screeches from the low-carb congregation now! But, apparently, this is a common Italian combination. `The Silver Spoon' has at least two pasta and potato recipes, and that doesn't include potato gnocchi. Speaking of gnocchi, it's interesting that there are no gnocchi recipes in this book, reinforcing the notion that it is primarily about dried pasta.While a modern cookbook collector already has ample pasta recipes from Italian sauces such as Lydia Bastianich and Marcella Hazan and non-Italian sources such as Jamie Oliver and Rose Gray and Ruth Rodgers from London's River Café, this relatively inexpensive book is a great find if you really like pasta and like to find as many different ways to make it as the day is long.All the recipes are expertly written, with few details left to one's experience. On more difficult recipes such as the recipe for fresh pasta, the authors are candid about the fact that you may simply not get it right the first time. Some things simply need to be practiced. The only nit I would pick is that other books, such as those from Marcella Hazan, may be a bit more detailed on fresh pasta making technique. But even if you never make your own fresh pasta, this book is a superb single subject cookbook.

Reviewer: Douglas Figueredo
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Thorough!
Review: Great tips, a ton of recipes. I doubt I'll go through all of them, but I wish I would. They look delicious and relatively easy to do. There's a glossary that spells out what the ingredients are and why they're good for what and how to buy them. The tone of the book is as if the authors are your good friends who are REALLY into this cuisine and want you to learn how to cook it (and love it, too).

Reviewer: Amazon Customer
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: good cookbook
Review: This is a very good cookbook with some solid recipes.

Reviewer: Kelly DeSilva
Rating: 3.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Not thrilled
Review: I have eaten at Al Forno several times and was told that one of the pasta dishes I had there was going to be in the book. I really wanted that recipe but I guess it did not make the final cut. I also have their other cookbook (try the roasted sausages and grapes and Georges meat sauce, I made the veal and cream version) . Anyway i dont find this book to be terribly exciting. We will see.

Reviewer: JMRunner
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: This book is so much more than it appears. Get it!
Review: A truly underrated cookbook. I was given this by my wife. I turned my nose up at it and ignored it for better than two years before I really took a close look at it. Being something like my dozenth Italian cookbook and not looking very ... chef-ly? Chef-ish? I was unimpressed. But then my wife got it out and cooked a couple of recipes from it... And they were great! Great!!!It's Italian cooking by someone who did it successfully for a living for a long time. Someone who traveled Italy for food inspiration. And here are the really cool parts: 1) I don't think there is a single traditional recipe in here. No alfredo, no bolognese, no puttanesca... None of it. 2) This is what they cooked after they got off work in their own restaurant or on their days off.After having this book in action for the better part of 7 years, I realized I have cooked more from this book than any other single book I own. (Dozens.) I use it for a quick weeknight meal book and the food never tastes like it. EVER.

Reviewer: Spiderlakegirl
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: My sister, the chef, ordered this for me...
Review: and I'm so glad she did! What a delightful, informative, easy to follow book. The recipes are wonderful (Vintner's Spaghetti is one of our favorites), use a limited number of commonly stocked ingredients and are easy to follow. We've been fortunate to have visited Italy several times and these recipes are very, very much like the delicious food we enjoyed there. I would characterize this cookbook as a 'staple' for your kitchen shelf.

Reviewer: Michele Carpenter
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Excellent recipes and techniques
Review: I have made between 15 and 20 of these recipes (far more than I have ever made from any other cookbook) and all have been successful so far. I have learnt new techniques and tried unusual combinations of ingredients and have loved every recipe so far. The instructions are very clear and easy to follow. I like the book so much that I plan to give copies of the book to my friends for Christmas this year.

Reviewer: MamaG
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Love the book, did not think I was buying 'remainder' item!
Review: I absolutely adore this cookbook, and make several of the recipes throughout the year. Spent time with friends this summer and thought it would make a nice 'thank you' gift. Was not aware that the book I purchased from Amazon would be a remainder! Big black mark across the bottom of the book! Please inform us completely when we are getting such items! It was very embarrassing, indeed!