Guilano Hazan’s Thirty Minute Pasta

Giuliano Hazan’s Thirty Minute Pasta: 100 Quick and Easy Recipes sounds too good to be true.  Thirty minutes and easy are two words we love to hear when it comes to preparing dinner.  My husband and son are particularly challenge when it comes to preparing food.  They like to use the pasta that comes in a box with orange powdered cheese flavored stuff, though they can and have prepared homemade spaghetti sauce.  Their cooking skills are limited, and while they could come up with a different meal every night of the week, the next week would probably be the same exact ones as the first week.  I was excited with the quick and easy, very excited as a matter of fact. 

The recipes in the book did seem easy, basic, but interesting to the palate.  I wondered if they really were 30 minute recipes.  For the first dinner from this book, I chose Spaghetti Carbonara.  I followed the recipe exactly, working at lightening speed and no stopping to breathe.  Yes, it can be done in 30 minutes, but only because I worked very quickly.  Spaghetti Carbonara was a relatively easy recipe too, but I was the cook, so I wasn’t sure if my opinion could be trusted.

The second recipe we chose to try was Spaghetti with Cauliflower and Pancetta.  This time I wanted my husband to do the cooking.  If he can follow the recipes, then they truly are easy recipes.  He calls himself a newbie, because his cooking experiences are limited, though his usual repertoire makes a decent meal.  There was some cursing and gnashing of teeth, but I think it had more to do with the organization of the kitchen drawers than the recipe.  We chose this recipe because we bought cauliflower at a farm stand sale and had it available.  Thirty minutes went by quickly, but dinner took a little longer to prepare, closer to 45 or 55 minutes.  My husband wasn’t rushing, but that was probably a good thing. The food was delicious and my husband felt he could do it again.

Our assessment:

1. Thirty minutes might be pushing it, but can be accomplished if you know what you are doing and have mise en place.

2. The food is a little under seasoned.  Maybe that’s a time trade off, but a few more herbs and spices would be good, though simplicity was appreciated.

3. Drawback – most recipes ask you to prepare a whole pound of pasta for the meal.  We think a whole pound is a bit much for serving 4 people. 

3. Easy – yes!

4. Clear – yes!

5. We recommend this for a busy parent, a newbie or a college student. 

6. We will definitely use this book.

 

I like that these recipes are using items normally found in the home pantry and very easily found in the grocery store.  In the early part of the book, Hazan discusses the different types of pastas, and the sauces that work best with them. Also, he lists what you should keep in your pantry to help out with these quick easy recipes. The recipes include pasta soups, vegetarian pastas, seafood pastas and meat pastas.

 

My grade A- , my husband gave it a B.

 

Disclosure:  Guilano Hazan’s Thirty Minute Pasta 100 Quick Easy Recipes was provided to me in order to do this review. The honest opinions provided are my own, and my husband’s . 

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