I feel this is the case with all books for me, and not just cookbooks: the author is more important than the subject. The relevance of that opening statement here is that, while I can safely say I don’t need any more books on pasta in my life, I also know that anything Joshua McFadden writes will always find a welcome home on my shelves. Both things are true, but the latter most definitely overrides the former.
I feel I should explain his title for those who haven’t yet encountered his first cookbook, Six Seasons: A New Way with Vegetables, that he customarily separates Summer into three, namely, Early Summer, Midsummer, and Late Summer, which makes perfect sense if you think of it in terms of maximising seasonal produce and the celebration thereof. I should also tell you that this is not a book that is about making pasta: its focus is on the sauces that dress dry pasta and, if I may put it this way, using your noodle! But as with his two previous books, the true subject, in a way, is the optimisation of flavour. Of course, that in turn, is about technique, ingredients, and bringing serious attention to each stage of the cooking process. And these lessons are embedded in each meticulously explained dish.
The recipes themselves cover, as he puts it “from boiling the water, to making the sauce and – most critically – managing the marriage between noodles and sauce.” And then there are the final touches, those wisely chosen additions at the end to amp up the flavour and complete the dish. And there is so much to savour in them: Pork Shoulder Ragù with Lemon; Short Rib Ragù with Black Peppercorns; Cacio e Pepe; a sauce of Artichokes, Peas, Favas (Broad Beans) and Asparagus; of Peas with Pistachio, Olives and Mint; Broccoli and Sausage; Corn with Jalapeños and Brown Butter; Chard with Anchovies, Olives and Tomato; Mushrooms with Onion, Pancetta and Cream; and Butternut Squash with Sausage, Sage and Spicy Chiles/Chillies. You can deduce from this shortlist that the recipes are not all exactly Italian; as the subtitle puts it, this is a book that offers 'A New Way with Everyone’s Favorite Food’. The recipe from it that I’m delightedly sharing with you today has a more traditionally Italian flavour, you might say, although brought about in a slightly different way, namely his take on that gentle classic, ragù bianco, or what he calls White Bolognese with Cream.
Excerpted from Six Seasons of Pasta by Joshua McFadden with Martha Holmberg (Artisan Books). Copyright © 2025.
Photographs by AJ Meeker. Illustrations by Abe Naylor.
