I love this cookbook. My brother started using this cookbook about twenty years ago. He would quote the weird ideas that the author has, like you have to pat mushrooms with a paper towel, and you have to sift sand off spinach and then daintily remove each stem. Consequently, at first I thought this cookbook was ridiculous. But I was won over with a series of tremendously delicious pasta sauces. Eventually I drank the Kool Aid and became fully converted to the Jack Bishop way. Usually with a cookbook I only make one or two recipes, but I use this one constantly, practically daily. It focuses on fresh, simple Italian pasta dishes. Like the Ballet Cookbook, there are no photos of food. (I prefer that because food photography makes me feel small and inferior.) So it is a real cookbook, not a coffee-table book. I am a vegan and most of these vegetarian recipes are easy to convert. From a literary POV, my favorite part is when he describes going to Paris at the age of twenty and eating an artichoke for the first time. I would go a little easier on the red hot pepper flakes than the proportions called for in this book. ( )

This book was given to me as a gift, and I have given in as a gift. It's great for anyone who likes food. Vegetarians and vegans can make the veggies and serve them over pasta or whole grain, and meat loverscan cook the veggies and have some killer sides to their roast beast.

Buy the best quality olive oil, hook yourself up with some great produce, and eat!