You need have no qualms about pasta

A few days ago, I randomly mentioned a pile of books which were stacked on the bookshelf beside me. I mentioned it to illustrate the variety of different books I read, and although it was a random pile, three out of the five are cookery books. Yesterday I wrote about one of the books, an illustrated journey along the River Cam and the Great Ouse – the photos were by a friend of my dad, the text by his son.The top of my pile is a cookery book, by Simonetta Lupi Vada

I’ve had ‘The Pasta Book’ by Ms. Vada for a very long time, it was copyrighted in 1981 and a new edition in 1983, translated and published in Britain in 1984, so I must have got it shortly after that. I can’t find anything much of a biography for the author – this is the best I came across: “Simonetta Lupi Vada believes lessons in history and geography help to understand Italian cooking… Mrs. Vada writes a cooking and nutrition column for the Italian magazine Benissimo and is a food consultant.” It’s a beautiful book with wonderful photographs not just of the different types of pasta and dishes included it, but of the stages of making them and the sauces to accompany the meal.

“Delicious, glittering pasta in a subtly flavoured sauce is a prospect few people can resist – whether or not they are Italian. But what many people outside Italy are only just beginning to realise is that there is much, much more to enjoy than spaghetti bolognese. The taste of fresh home-made pasta is a joy in itself, and contrary to widespread belief making pasta at home is not difficult, if you can make pastry or bread, you need have no qualms about pasta.“

I think that when this was written, although pasta was a staple, and Italian restaurants were very popular and offering different varieties from spaghetti and macaroni, people in general were only just beginning to come across the much wider range of Italian foods and ingredients. There were also far fewer cookery programmes, far fewer travel programmes showing foodie destinations. These days spag boll and pasta and cheese sauce is a go-to and standby for most families, but there is a wide range of other Italian foods made at home from scratch, as part of everyday meals. Simonetta shows a variety of different pasta machines and equipment – which we would now expect to find very easily,, but over forty years ago when this book was first published here, I’m sure keen cooks would have to go on an expedition to find them!

Here is one of her recipes:

Vodka Sauce