CleverRoot

2 0 | t h e c l e v e r r o o t COOKBOOK CORNER w As an avid cookbook hoarder, I always look forward to growing my collection. Here are a few of my recent favorites! by Jesse Hom-Dawson flour + water: pasta by Thomas McNaughton with Paolo Lucchesi (Ten Speed Press, $35) Once you have fresh pasta, it's hard to go back to store- bought, but it's often some- thing that appears out of reach to home cooks. In fact, once you have the technique down, mastering making pasta is actually quite simple. This cookbook from flour + water in San Francisco uses rich pho- tography and detailed, clear instructions for mouth-water- ing recipes like pumpkin tor- telloni with sage and pumpkin seeds and corzetti with sausage, clams and fennel. It teaches how to make a basic pasta dough and then expand on it with infinite variations. Chestnut flour transforms into chestnut maltagliati with porcini and celery root, while red wine gives a deep color to red wine rigatoni with beef cheeks and parsnips. Knowing that not everyone has the time or ability to whip up pastas like squid ink chitarra, they also include more user-friendly store-bought options. However, with some practice this cookbook makes it easy to master pasta-making, and the only difficulty you'll have is the pronunciation! On Vegetables by Jeremy Fox with Noah Galuten (Phaidon, $ 49.95) At the former celebrated vegetar- ian restaurant Ubuntu in Napa, CA, Jeremy Fox was perhaps one of the first chefs to make veg- etables—as a meal—appealing to the die-hard meat eater in me. Not as a side dish, not as an appetizer, but as a whole meal composed of just vegetables. And although Fox currently heads the kitchen at meat-friendly eatery Rustic Can- yon in Los Angeles, it seems fitting that his first cookbook would be entirely veggie-based. He applies the carnivorous concept of nose-to-tail cooking to vegetables with a "seed-to-stalk" outlook, in which every part of a vegetable can be used, from the stems of parsley to the trimmings of beets. Many of the dishes are simple, like the purple haze carrots with yogurt and sumac or patatas bravas, which means the vegetables used must be as fresh as possible to let their true flavors shine through. While dishes like cream of sunchoke soup with persim- mon red-eye gravy are the stars, condiments and accoutrements also steal the show. Whether it's using the tops of onions to create a finishing "ash," or my personal favorite—black garlic—Fox is able to coax edible magic out of every part of his ingredients. Huckleberry: Stories, Secrets, and Recipes from Our Kitchen by Zoe Nathan with Josh Loeb and Laurel Almerinda (Chronicle Books, $35) Delicate French pastries and cakes have their place (mostly in my stomach), but sometimes the occasion calls for something slightly less refined, like fresh blueberry brioche or lemon cornmeal muffins with lemon glaze. Santa Monica's über-popular Huckleberry Café and owner Zoe Nathan have mastered the art of delicious, decadent desserts and dishes that are rustic and hearty. Many of the recipes are not for the diet-conscious—maple bacon biscuits and a Monte Cristo sandwich are highlights— but it's well worth the calories. Breakfast is the star of the show, with multiple varia- tions of pancakes, from brown rice quinoa to ricotta griddlecakes or savory dishes like braised brisket and fingerling potato hash. This is the perfect cookbook to bring out on weekends, whipping up something for brunch all your friends will love. ■cr

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