Milk Street Noodles

Kimball (Milk Street: The World in a Skillet) delivers a resourceful primer on noodles, a food that “charm[s] and delight[s] almost every kitchen in the world.” Readers reap the benefits of his Milk Street team being dispatched to learn at the elbow of cooks across the globe. A chapter of stir-fries features a satisfying range of noodle varieties, including glass, sweet potato starch, udon, rice, and ramen. Sour soups of Eastern Europe, meanwhile, are represented in a recipe that calls for sauerkraut and its tangy brine. Dishes draw on widely available and pantry-friendly ingredients, and often result in pleasing mash-ups: a chicken noodle soup with turmeric and coconut milk relies on influences from China, India, Myanmar, and Thailand, while a Syrian-inspired pasta comes together with fettuccine, lentils, and pomegranate molasses. Innovative takes on Italian classics will help home cooks get dinner on the table quickly; the long-simmered, hearty zuppa forte of Naples, for example, becomes a 30-minute meal thanks to diced pancetta and Korean gochujang, and gnocchi is created “in an instant” using dried potato flakes. Even the humble tuna noodle casserole gets an upgrade with Gruyère, capers, and sautéed fennel. With handy tips and practical indexing, this welcome compendium does not disappoint. Agent: David Black, David Black Literary. (Apr.)