Healthy fast food, 'Thirty Minute Pasta: 100 Quick and Easy Recipes' book review with sample recipes

Chef Giuliano's pasta is sumptious and nutritious.

Pasta is one of the most versatile foods ever. Varieties number in the 100s and are as diverse as semolina, spinach, whole wheat, and low carbohydrate Dreamfields brand. Pasta fits into every diet, and every lifestyle, especially today's super busy ones.

Even more attractive is pasta's convenience and speed of preparation. Now, world-renowned Italian Chef, author, and cooking teacher, Giuliano Hazan has a fabulous cookbook out that takes even the most inexperienced of cooks on a journey of tantalizing Italian flavors. Giuliano Hazan's 'Thirty Minute Pasta: 100 Quick and Easy Recipes' is literally the cookbook every kitchen should have. See sample recipes excepted from the book below.

Cooks and diners alike will love this cookbook. 'Thirty Minute Pasta' lets you bring a taste of Italy to your table in only 30 minutes. Giuliano Hazan’s new pasta cookbook gives everyone access to one of the most exciting and exotic European countries. Italy's cuisine has delighted the world for ages. 'Thirty Minute Pasta' isn't just a cookbook, it's an inspired volume of Italian pasta recipes destined to become as revered as the sparkling blue Amalfi coastline and the Tuscan hills.

Chef Hazan has perfected this collection of sumptuous pasta dishes, all prepared in 30 minutes. Join Chef Giuliano Hazan in cooking delicious pasta for friends and family in no time. 'Thirty Minute Pasta ' is beautifully illustrated with 40 full-color photographs, and the recipes in 'Thirty Minute Pasta' will have home cooks everywhere feeling as if they have discovered an Italian village trattoria right in their own kitchens.  

Ease of preparation is the cornerstone of each of Chef Giuliano’s recipes. Along with the simple elegance of each dish, you are rewarded with superior flavor. Even time crunched home cooks can make a spectacular meal for entertaining, or a simple family supper. And with 'Thirty Minute Pasta' it's as easy and fast as going through a drive thru. Why pay to eat so so fast food out, when you can eat sumptious and nutritious "fast food" at home.

Chef Giuliano brilliantly pairs the various pasta shapes with the best-suited sauces in recipes such as: Vegetable Soup with Pasta,  Egg Drop Soup with Zucchini, Amalfi Style,  Linguine with Fish Ragu Tagliatelle with Prosciutto, Spaghetti Carbonara, Fettuccine with Spring Vegetables, Fettucine with a Savory Veal Sauce, Linguine with a Pink Shrimp Sauce, Penne with Leeks, Zucchini, and Peppers, Penne with Sausage and Rapini,  Maccheroni with Tomatoes and Sage, Fusilli with Yellow Squash and Grape Tomatoes, and the classic Fettuccine Alfredo.

Chef Giuliano has also included his five simple rules on how to cook pasta perfectly every time. Savor a simple gourmet Italian pasta meal any night of the week and celebrate easy, healthy, quick and delicious food.

Here are a few sample recipes excepted from the award-winning chef, Giuliano Hazan's 'Thirty Minute Pasta: 100 Quick and Easy Recipes' courtesy of Chef Giuliano Hazan: Recipes from THIRTY MINUTE PASTA: 100 Quick and Easy Recipes by Giuliano Hazan (Stewart, Tabori & Chang, September 2009, $24.95/trade paperback original)

Egg Drop Soup with Zucchini - Amalfi Style Zuppa Amalfitana alle Zucchine

This pasta soup is adapted from a recipe my mother learned from Pierino Iovene, who many years ago owned an amazing seafood restaurant, Il Gambero Rosso, in my mother’s hometown of Cesenatico. A native of Amalfi and a very gifted cook, Pierino would periodically prepare some of his native specialties for us, one of which was a delicious zucchini egg drop soup. I’ve replaced the potatoes he used with a corkscrew-shaped, tubular pasta and discovered his soup is also delicious as a pasta soup. Don’t use smaller soup pasta shapes, as they are not substantial enough here.

Serves 4

1/2 small yellow onion

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1 ounce pancetta, sliced 1⁄8 inch thick

3/4 pound zucchini

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

1/2 pound tomatoes

6 ounces cavatappi pasta

6 – 8 fresh basil leaves

1 egg

Peel the onion and finely chop it. Put it with the olive oil in a 4- to 6-quart soup pot and place over medium-high heat. Sauté until the onion turns a rich golden color, about 5 minutes.

While the onion is sautéing, cut the pancetta into small 1/8-inch dice. Wash the zucchini, remove the ends, and cut it into chunks no larger than 1/2-inch.

When the onion is ready, add the pancetta and sauté until it loses its raw color, about 1 minute. Add the zucchini and season with salt and pepper. Sauté the zucchini until it just begins to brown, 3 to 4 minutes.

While the zucchini is sautéing, peel the tomatoes and coarsely chop them. When the zucchini is ready, add the tomatoes. Season lightly with salt, cook for about 3 more minutes, then add 5 cups water. Cover the pot and, once the soup comes to a boil, reduce the heat to medium. Cook until the zucchini is quite tender, 10 to 12 minutes.

When the zucchini is tender, add the pasta. Coarsely shred the basil and add it to the soup. Cook until the pasta is al dente.

While the pasta is cooking, crack the egg in a small mixing bowl and whisk it until the yolk and white form a homogeneous mixture. As soon as the soup is ready, remove it from the heat and pour the egg into the soup in a thin, steady stream while stirring constantly. Serve at once.

Fusilli with Leeks and Red Onions - Fusilli ai Porri e Cipolla Rossa

Leeks are onions’ milder cousins and when they cook down they become sweet and creamy.  Red onions add their unique flavor making this quite a luscious pasta sauce.

Serves 4 people

1 medium red onion

4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

2 medium leeks

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

6-7 sprigs flat leaf Italian parsley

1 pound fusilli (spaghetti would also be good here)

1/2 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

Fill a pot for the pasta with about 6 quarts of water, place over high heat, and bring to a boil.

Peel and thinly slice the red onion crosswise.  Put it with the olive oil in a 12-inch skillet and place over medium high heat.  Sauté the onion while you are prepping the leeks.  If the onion begins to brown, remove from the heat.

While the onion is sautéing, cut off the root end of the leeks and trim the tough dark green tops of the leaves.   Cut the leeks into narrow strips 2-3 inches long, put them in a bowl, and cover with water.  Swish the leeks with your hands to loosen any dirt.  Lift the leeks out of the water in the bowl and add them to the pan.  Season with salt and pepper and add about 1/2 cup of water.  Cover the pan, lower the heat to medium, and cook until the leeks are very tender, 15-20 minutes.  Check them periodically and add morewater if all the liquid evaporates before they are done.

While the leeks are cooking, finely chop enough parsley to measure about 2 tablespoons.

After the leeks have cooked for at least 15 minutes, add about 2 tablespoons salt to the boiling pasta water, put in the fusilli, and stir well.  Cook until al dente.

When the leeks are done, uncover the pan and if there is still liquid in the pan, raise the heat until it is almost completely evaporated.  If the pan is completely dry, add about 1/4 cup of the pasta water instead.  Stir in the parsley and cook for another minute.

When the pasta is done, drain well, toss with the sauce and the grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, and serve at once.

Spaghetti with Melon

Many years ago I remember eating with my parents at a restaurant in Venice that specialized in unusual dishes, none of which were seafood or risotto, the staples of Venetian cuisine.  The restaurant is no longer there and I don’t remember the name, but I do remember a delicious dish of pasta with cantaloupe.  My mother started making it a home and I often make it when we have friends over.  Once it is cooked, the melon is mostly unrecognizable and it’s great fun seeing if people can guess what the sauce’s “secret” ingredient is.

Serves 4 people

3 pounds cantaloupe melon

3 tablespoons butter

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

1 pound spaghetti (linguine is also good here)

2 teaspoons concentrated tomato paste

1-1/2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

1/2 cup heavy cream

1/2 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

Fill a pot for the pasta with about 6 quarts of water, place over high heat, and bring to a boil.

Pare away the rind of the melon, down to the orange flesh.  Discard the seeds and cut the melon into 1/2-inch dice.  Put the butter in a 12-inch skillet and place over medium high heat.  Once the butter has melted completely, add the melon and season generously with salt and pepper.  Cook, stirring often, until the melon begins to break down and most of the liquid it releases has evaporated, about 10 minutes.

Add about 2 tablespoons salt to the boiling pasta water, put in the spaghetti, and stir until all the strands are submerged.  Cook until al dente.

Add the tomato paste and lemon juice to the melon and stir well.  Add the cream and cook until it thickens and reduces by about a third, 2-3 minutes.  Remove from the heat.

When the pasta is done, drain well, toss with the sauce and the Parmigiano-Reggiano, and serve at once.

About the Author

Giuliano Hazan, son of famed Italian cookbook writers Marcella and Victor Hazan, runs a cooking school in Verona with his wife, Lael. Winner of the 2007 IACP award for Cooking Teacher of the Year, he is also a contributor to Cooking Light magazine, a fre­quent guest on the Today show, and author of three books: The Classic Pasta Cookbook (1993), which sold over half a million copies worldwide, Every Night Italian (2000), and How to Cook Italian (2005) all available at Amazon on Chef Giuliano's page. Giuliano loves spending time – in the kitchen and traveling the world – with his wife Lael, and his two daughters, Gabriella and Michela. The family lives in Sarasota, Florida.

Recipes from THIRTY MINUTE PASTA: 100 Quick and Easy Recipes by Giuliano Hazan (Stewart, Tabori & Chang, September 2009, $24.95/trade paperback original)