In this hard-working manual for home cooks who aspire to master the art of pasta cooking, the James Beard Award-winning chef/owner of the acclaimed Lilia and Misi in Brooklyn presents recipes for 40 handmade pasta shapes and 100 Italian American, regional Italian and modern dishes. Pasta making is repetitive, precise manual labor. It is the joining of two ingredients-- flour and water, or flour and eggs. Each shape-- rolled, stamped, hand-cut-- has its own origin story, rhythmic set of motions, and tools. The recipes are rooted in home cooking, the foods Robbins likes to eat and had always been cooking. The book is, at its core, a journey back to the home regions in an effort to understand the pastas with new clarity. -- adapted from Quanto basta (page xi).