Lidia's The Art of Pasta

A wide-ranging pasta collection for home cooks who want bedrock classics alongside regional discoveries and clear, practical instruction.

Lidia Matticchio Bastianich brings real authority to the stove: fifteen cookbooks, an Emmy for PBS’s Lidia’s Kitchen, restaurants including Becco, and a partnership in Eataly. Her voice is steady, precise, and generous without fuss.

You’ll find familiar comforts—spaghetti al pomodoro, stuffed shells, fettuccine alfredo—set beside specialties that rarely appear in American collections. Think Istrian-style pasutice with seafood (pasutice are broad, diamond-cut noodles) and Emilia-Romagna ravioli filled with potato and bacon, plus gnocchi and nine fresh doughs that include chickpea, whole wheat, and buckwheat.

Bastianich encourages a little adventure while smoothing the path. For pappardelle with rabbit ragù, she notes the best flavor comes from a whole, bone-in rabbit cut into pieces, then offers an easy route using hind legs if you’d rather not break one down.

Techniques are concrete, regional notes give dishes their shape, and the range carries you from weeknights to slow Sundays.

Hardcover. Color photographs throughout.