The Little Book That Was Worth a Pasta

Grenadine by birth and Milanese by adoption, Alicia Mañas, became known with one of the first cooking blogs back in 2005, what I like is cooking .

Today he returns with The Food Mood and his first book The Little Book That Was Worth a Pasta  where he teaches us his techniques and tricks to prepare delicious homemade pasta dishes with our own hands.

I love this woman’s philosophy, just to say that she adored her blog, what I like is cooking. That hooked me like everyone with his passion for Italian cuisine and the definition of happiness is a noisy table full of people. Good way to understand life.

She herself defines her passion for gastronomy as:

“Those days when the after-dinner is eternal and you have to help digestion with a shot of limoncello. The afternoons when someone falls asleep on the sofa while the children run everywhere. ”

They are whole days of cooking together, eating together and extending the time as much as possible. But you don’t have to do complicated things or ten different dishes. You just need a good pasta recipe and you really want to have a good time. We put the recipes.

Prepare some spaghetti in the company, but also try some gnocchi or dare with some homemade ravioli. You will not regret it. You are going to discover that you like pasta even more than you thought. ”

Alicia, tell us a little about yourself and your love of cooking

Well my story is very typical because my hobby of always eating, cooking or thinking about what to cook comes from family. In my house we have always been good to eat, we like family recipes and gather around a good dish, a beer and / or a good wine.

I have grown up watching my family cook and right away the kitchen bug bit me because those delicious smells invited to get down to work.

Later, when I grew up, my culinary experience was increasing for obvious reasons (eating must be eaten every day) and my experiments also increased. Kitchens from all over the world have always caught my attention, perhaps because the Spanish one was closer to hand, and especially the Italian one. With her it was love at first sight.

And what does a grenadine do in Milan?

I met my husband, Italian, during the years I was living in Barcelona. I think it was already written somewhere that this would be my destiny, I had studied Italian at university and when the time came to make the decision to move or not, the answer came very naturally.

Since then almost 14 years have passed and I have allowed myself to be adopted, almost without effort, by its gastronomy, its land, its customs and the wonderful art that our Italian brothers have of speaking more with their hands than with words.

What I like is cooking was one of the first cooking blogs in our blogosphere

Yes, I had only been in Milan for a short time and, of course, I felt a bit of a bite. I always liked to tinker with computers and blogs caught my attention from the first moment. The fact that the blog became a cooking blog was inevitable… I was learning so much in Italy!

It was almost 8 years of blogging but the moment came when I felt the moment to change and start from scratch.

And so The Food Mood was born

Yes, the blog was released almost a year ago. Obviously, the style is very similar to what I like to cook, but I needed a more structured, modern space that would reflect my cooking philosophy, which is “everything made at home.”

Many years ago I gave up packaged products. Hardly frozen or ready-to-eat dishes come into my house because I began to notice that they sat fatally on me. We eat fresh food, lots of fruits and vegetables, I make my own pasta and I choose the flours with which I make my bread. I am not going to say that I do not buy anything packaged because it would not be true but I try that most of the things we eat are healthy and natural.

I imagine that living in Italy you have learned well how to prepare fresh pasta. Tell us about your book!

In Italy you eat a lot but a lot of pasta. Perhaps the production of homemade pasta a couple of decades ago was more common, but today with the kitchen boom there are many people who have done it again at home.

Since I arrived I felt completely in love with pasta. One of the first gifts I received was a machine for stretching fresh pasta.

I had time with the idea of ​​a book in which to collect the traditional recipes that I prepare the most and that I like the most. Demodé books  has given me the opportunity to make a dream come true.

I am very happy with the result because I think we have managed to compile a good number of fairly simple recipes that are not well known in Spain. They are the classic recipes found on the menus of the trattories and it is a great pleasure to be able to prepare them at home.

Ears with broccoli sauce, maltagliati soup with beans, pappardelle with asparagus and prawns, pumpkin tortelli and lasagna are some of the recipes found inside as well as several chapters on the preparation, flours, different formats, etc. .

In addition to this book, I have participated, along with a large poster of blogger friends, in other great works on fresh pasta and bread from Libros con Miga.

The Little Book That Was Worth a Pasta

• Author: Alicia Mañas
• Number of pages: 125
• Price € 18
• Edition: Spanish – Ebook interactive format that you can consult from your tablet, mobile or computer.

More than 125 pages with information on pasta, how to make it and how to preserve it. 24 pasta recipes and 5 sauce recipes, plus the recipe for making homemade bouillon cubes and instructions for making pasta in many different ways. Explanations for making basic dough of two types and pasta dough of different colors and flavors.