How to Cook Pasta That Tastes Like You’re in Italy

Joshua McFadden's secret for making the perfect pasta at home.

If you’ve been around here for a while, you know how much I love Joshua McFadden’s Six Seasons: A New Way with Vegetables. It’s one of those cookbooks that changed the way I cook forever—helping me see seasonal produce in a whole new light. So when I heard he was releasing a follow-up this fall (Six Seasons of Pasta), I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it.

In his new book, Joshua makes the case that dried pasta is the ultimate canvas for seasonal cooking. The recipes are approachable but feel restaurant-worthy, and the “build-the-sauce-in-the-skillet” method is one of those tricks you’ll use for the rest of your life. Today, I’m sharing one of my favorite recipes from the book—plus, I chatted with Joshua about his best pasta tips for at-home success, and why seasonality is at the heart of everything he cooks.

Your first cookbook, Six Seasons: A New Way with Vegetables, reshaped how many of us thought about cooking with vegetables. Why did you take on pasta as your next subject?

First, because pasta is my favorite food. It also felt like the perfect extension because, like vegetables, you can pair so many things with pasta: olive oil; aromatics like garlic, chiles, and fresh herbs; umami-rich Parmigiano-Reggiano and tender mozzarella cheeses; meats, seafood, and poultry; and, of course—seasonal vegetables.

A pasta dish can showcase the best of the season, from delicate fava beans in spring to meaty tomatoes in late summer to deeply roasted butternut squash in winter.

I was surprised to hear you mention in the book that you prefer dried pasta over fresh pasta. Why is that?

I like fresh pasta, I might even love fresh pasta, but for daily life, I—and millions of Italians—prefer using dried pasta, for a number of reasons.

First, the texture. Tender but still resilient, dried pasta gives you something to actually chew on. Paired with a luscious sauce, the springy bite of dried pasta cooked al dente is addictive.

Next, the availability. Even a middle-of-the-road grocery store will have several brands to choose from, each brand offering multiple shapes. Better grocery stores, specialty markets, and Italian markets will have a vast array, playgrounds of pasta. And, of course, you can find any pasta you like online.

And then there’s the affordability. While some people think of pasta as a “cheap eat” (certainly the case for countless broke college kids), I think of it as an affordable luxury. While mass-market brands such as Barilla spaghetti, for example, can be had for under $2 per pound (450 g), making it truly inexpensive, the price for the very best imported artisanal pasta noodles hovers around $10 per pound; my favorite go-to brand, Rustichella d’Abruzzo, costs about $8 per pound.