One of the things that everyone interested in cooking or food should do is try to make their own pasta. Doing a basic recipe - flour, water, salt and maybe an egg - is fun and easy, and even if your pasta isn't picture perfect, it will still taste amazing because you made something that perhaps you never imagined making at home. Pasta Fresca is a cookbook that actually goes over making pasta in detail, covering different shapes and techniques. Along with the information for those basics, there are lots of recipes that will help you figure out what to do with it once you've made it.
The dishes are simple, fresh and satisfying, but they aren't always what you'd expect and are certainly not things you'll find sold in jars at the market. It has "sauces" that don't involve cooking, cheese sauces, meat sauces and ones with surprising ingredient combinations.
The recipes include Thin Rigatoni with Italian Bacon and Cranberry Beans, Salsa Rosa con Vodka and Beach Pasta, which features a combination of tuna, tomatoes, olives, and anchovies. Along with the pasta-and-sauce dishes, there are also recipes for soups, gnocchi and various stuffed pastas.
