James Beard, 'Beard on Pasta,' published by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1983, stated first edition.

Beard on Pasta is a 236 page hardcover measuring 8 1/4" x 6 1/4".  The dust jacket has some shelf wear and some closed tears.  Inside, there is light foxing to the top outside page edges.  Otherwise, the book is in mint condition, with clean unmarked pages are tight squared binding.  The condition is very good.

Book Summary

This book does for pasta what Beard on Bread did for bread:  everything.  James beard tells you in the most delicious terms exactly what you need to know about making good pasta, about cooking it, saucing it, stuffing it, and serving it forth.

Beard himself calls this "a book of good times to have with pasta," and he encourages experimentation.  But first the fundamentals:  he explains step by step how to make perfect fresh pasta, both hand-made and machine-made (with no-nonsense assessments of the fully automatic pasta makers).  He gives recipes for plain doughs, whole wheat, spinach, tomato, beet, basil, and avocado doughs.  He discusses commercial pastas, American and imported and Oriental varieties.  He gives a lexicon of cheeses that go with pasta:  hard-grating types. fresh and nutty cheeses, bland varieties for melting, and tangy, creamy ones for gentle folding.

Then on to recipes for pasta dishes--soups with pasta, pastas with vegetables (from pesto to a primavera), fish pastas, meat pastas, egg and cheese pastas, stuffed pastas, and cold pasta salads.  With 100 of his own favorite recipes to choose from, here are pastas for every mood and occasion.

ISBN:  0-394-52291-5