Award-winning cookbook authors Joshua McFadden and Martha Holmberg (Six Seasons: A New Way with Vegetables) have a thesis, and that's the introduction's title to their third cookbook together, Six Seasons of Pasta: "Pasta Is Perfect." The noodle, they argue, is affordable and requires few ingredients, comes in many shapes and sizes for variety, and its versatility makes it the "perfect showcase for seasonal bounty." The following recipes provide direction on how to do exactly that, organized by the rhythms of annual harvests. Celebrate the early produce of spring with fava and almond pesto and incorporate the bounty of zucchini and summer squash in midsummer with spaghetti alla nerano. Sauces and additions get richer and heavier for fall, with three versions of pasta fagiole.
Full-color photographs accompany each recipe, with colorful page markings delineating season and section, and a satisfying, embossed jacket-less cover will shine on any cookbook shelf. Come for the book design and promise of carbs, stay for the celebration of seasonal produce that is, as the subtitle promises, an invitation to reimagine "everyone's favorite food." --Kerry McHugh