Anything’s Pastable: 81 Inventive Pasta Recipes for Saucy People

The Sporkful podcaster Pashman opens his chatty debut cookbook with the story of how he invented the pasta shape cascatelli in 2021. After putting it into production, he found it “tragic” that consumers served it largely with tomato sauce instead of exploring its “full potential.” The recipes that follow aim to encourage a spirit of adventure in pasta lovers. Classics like ciceri e tria (fried and boiled noodles with chickpeas) are outnumbered by “mash-ups” incorporating non-Italian ingredients from Ritz crackers to Thai curry paste. Recipes are organized into loose categories: “flavor bombs” include kimchi carbonara, while baked options include a noodle kugel with persimmon relish. Pashman doesn’t shy away from store-bought shortcuts, encouraging readers to use packaged gnocchi and tortellini and even offering a flow chart for how to improve on jarred tomato sauce depending on taste and how much time one has. The text is heavy on dad jokes and puns—and the occasional sales pitch (he notes, for example, that gluten-free cascatelli is also available). Pashman is opinionated and blustery, deeming fusilli a “garbage shape” and pronouncing that “spaghetti sucks.” Purists will balk, but more adventurous home cooks will be glad they tuned in. (Mar.)