Making Fresh Pasta: Delicious Handmade, Homemade Recipes

Unlike many books that claim to be about making pasta, and turn out to be mostly recipes for dishes using pasta, this book actually is about making fresh pasta. And not just italian pasta, but other similar "pastas" from all over the world, such as Udon noodles, gnocchi, dumplings from Europe and Asia, which adds a new level to the book beyond what you might expect of a normal pasta book.The book describes how to use a pasta machine, and it often will make your life easier to use one, but it is only required for maybe one recipe for squid ink pasta.As another reviewer has mentioned, this book goes by the name of  Making Artisan Pasta  in the US. Bizzarely this book is now listed on amazon in the UK, even though it's the same, for a higher price - although it does also have a kindle edition. From that product's page you can use the look inside this book feature to read some of the first section of the book. As you can see it goes into a decent level of detail about types of flour and the effect they have on your pasta, egg sizes and everythingThe author introduces her own pasta flour mix including things like semolina, unbleached flour, italian 00 flour etc. I have been perfectly happy with bread flour so haven't tried her mix, but may give this a try to see the difference.Edit: I now use Sainsbury's "taste the difference" pasta flour which is so much easier to work with than bread flour, and the cheapest such flour I can findThe book then goes on to list a wide variety of ways to colour (and mildly flavour) pasta, for example beetroot pasta, red pepper, spinach.After this, there are sections for making different shapes and styles of pasta. Noodle style, shapes, sheets, dumplings and stuffed pastas.There are a few basic recipes for sauce on one page. For the stuffed pasta, the steps for making the pasta also include the steps for the stuffing that is suggested to go inside them. I would have liked to see a few different stuffing recipes listed separately as well as obviously there is plenty of freedom to put in a different stuffing.There are a number of tools and techniques employed in the book. From the simple fluted pastry / pasta wheel, the ravioli tray and stamp, to the more specialist machines. The latter are interesting, but I can't really see myself buying a machine just to curl pasta into one specific shape (and you will probably have difficulty trying to source such a contraption for a reasonable price)The style of writing in the book does show through as being a little Americanised and targeted at the American audience, but it doesn't really matter. Clearly the author has spent a lot of time in Italy, although it would be interesting to hear what an 'authentic Italian Nonna' would make of some of the suggestions - I really don't know and it's probably not that important. I think making pasta in this day and age is more about the enjoyment of making it and whether or not you enjoy the end result rather than sticking to tradition.All of the measurements are provided in grams and oz, although I would like to see some more round numbers of grams which would make the recipes easier to recall. Although I feel when you get into making pasta properly the recipe can only ever be a guide and you tend to feel the way the dough reacts rather than needing to measure all the time.

Got this in October and this book has already helped to create a few lovely meals. The recipes work well and the tips are very helpful, e.g. best way to add water or flour to already prepared dough. There are recipes from many different cuisines, e.g Japanese udon, matzo balls, spaetzle, Chinese noodles & dumplings, pierogi, and so forth. The instructions are clear and photos are beautiful and helpful. Overall, a lovely book that will be used over and over again.

The only book I found that had a great variety of recipes to make the pasta dough. It was a gift for someone so can't personally comment on the ease of recipes but reports seem to be favourable.

Lovely book with easy to follow recipes for more kinds pasta than I ever knew existed. Really informative. A great find and just what I wanted. Bought to accompany a gift of pasta making bakeware.

Great book for making pasta from scratch. Tells you everything you need to know and much more. Some very exciting different types of pasta that I have never seen or heard about. If you are planning on making your own pasta then get this book great value for money.

lovely recipes. bought as a gift and she loves it

Bought as a gift. He loved it, it is very detailed instructions and has many varieties.

Great authentic recipes, including some that aren't exactly pasta, like pierogi, manti, and chinese dumplings. The author also includes recipes for some fillings/sauces, but the best part of the book is the actual pasta recipes.