Your Pasta Sucks: A “Cookbook”

“My romance with pasta has been my longest and best relationship,” writes comedian Lane in the introduction to his uproarious debut, which surrounds 30 mostly classic, mostly pasta recipes with witty quips, campy banter, and heartfelt tributes to family and friends. An opening chapter, “Family,” includes his great-grandmother’s braciole (which eschews breadcrumbs and incorporates pine nuts), classic meat sauce, and Pasta della Mamma, a “Frankenstein version of carbonara, cacio e pepe, and alfredo” that, Lane contends, is also a work of “culinary genius.” Other chapters cover his travels through Rome and Sicily, offering up recipes for pistachio pesto and pasta al Limone alongside tips for how to create the startchiest pasta water, a “mystical potion that makes almost any pasta dish better.” A short final chapter, “Found Family,” amps up the in-jokes as Lane pays homage to his “gay family” with transcribed dialogues and a mocking recipe for a hapless friend’s instant mac-and-cheese. While this section may lose readers unfamiliar with Lane’s brand of comedy, there’s plenty of more accessible humor throughout (penne alla vodka in Italy is “as rare as a straight Disney villain”) and, though the recipes are few, thorough instructions offer real value for newer chefs. Readers are in good hands with Lane as their funny and authentic host. (Apr.)