This book is about cooking. Sure, there are plenty of recipes, but each recipe is a point of departure that encourages inspired cooking. Pasta Improvvisata isn't about religiously following a recipe to arrive at the perfect re-creation of an established Italian dish--there's a lot to be said for that, to be sure. There's a lot to be said for a recipe so well written that the unwitting cook is assured of putting on the table the same dish, right down to texture and aroma, that an Italian cook might be putting on his or her table. Marcella Hazan is a master of just such a recipe.

Erica de Mane's departure is to start with the feel of a particular Italian dish--just the approach or style--and then improvise with the kinds of ingredients actually available in American supermarkets. She ends up with dishes that are in the Italian spirit, but that speak to a willingness to be experimental, a willingness to say Hey, these are the ingredients I have on hand, and this is the pasta dish that comes as a logical conclusion.

Roasted Asparagus Lasagne with Fontina springs out of a dish that's traditionally just asparagus roasted with butter and Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese. Why not make it as lasagne? In the author's notes at the end of this recipe are several variations on the theme. She constantly coaxes the cook to reach out and try new things. How about Saffron Tagliatelle with Lobster, Tomato, and Cognac? Or Roasted Zucchini, Fennel, and Gruyere Tossed with Penne (which springs from the author's mother's sauce of sliced zucchini sautéed in olive oil)?

Tie on an apron before opening this book. You may not have the chance once you dive in. --Schuyler Ingle

The New York Times Raves, June 11, 1999:

Here's what the New York Times said on June 6, 1999, in a round-up of the year's best cookbooks, by Corby Kummer: "Unlike most books on America's favorite home-cooked supper, 'Pasta Improvvisata' is a book you will use. Erica De Mane, a first-time author, has adapted pasta recipes from all over Italy to her fine Italian-American palate and her well-stocked but not recherche Italian-American pantry. De Mane is a bit talky and not yet a prose stylist, but she is an experienced, generous home cook who understands how both Italians and Americans like to eat, and she deftly manages to bridge the two cultures. I like her abundant good sense and outspoken opinions, probably because I agree with many of them. 'Dried pasta made by American companies is so inferior to the firm, nutty versions imported from southern Italy that it is not even worth considering' (although I would add that my own favorite, Martelli, is made in Tuscany). 'There is nothing wrong with eating a lightly sauced dried pasta dish as a main course, but a big dish of tortellini bolognese is too rich and filling to be eaten in any but small servings.' She borrows French techniques when they suit her and makes freer use of butter, goat cheese, cognac, French garlic sausage and even garlic itself than Italian cooks would. But that's her point. 'When transporting a recipe across country lines, you want to preserve the spirit, adapting it when necessary to the ingredients you have to work with.' This straightforward theory is surprisingly hard to practice. With apparently endless invention and love of actual cooking, De Mane succeeds."

About The Author: Erica De Mane became infatuated with cooking as a teenager, drawing inspiration from her Southern Italian-American family’s kitchen, turning out eggplant Parmigiano and beautiful pizzas, sometimes, to the mystification of her parents, at three or four in the morning. After a brief stint in Journalism school and a chunk of time attempting to become a great American playwright (the one play she had produced was a comedy about cooking), she returned to her first and true love and began cooking at restaurants, including Le Madri and Florent in Manhattan, and attending the New York Restaurant School. With the itch to write still brewing, she eventually began selling articles on Italian cooking, first to Food & Wine magazine and then to The New York Times, Saveur, Gourmet, Fine Cooking, and other publications. She also wrote a monthly food column for Marie Claire magazine.

Erica continued to share her love of Italian cooking with her first book, Pasta Improvvisata, which was published by Scribner in 1999 and was singled out for praise by The New York Times in its twice-yearly cookbook roundup). That was followed by Pasta, for Williams-Sonoma, and The Flavors of Southern Italy, published by John Wiley & Sons in 2004, which was chosen by both Publishers Weekly and Food & Wine as one of the best cookbooks of the year. She also contributed many Italian food recipes to a new edition of The Joy of Cooking. She is currently working on ‘The Making of an Italian Cook’, a memoir cookbook.

Erica has appeared on Food Talk with Arthur Schwartz on WOR radio, on Dining with Peter Elliot on Bloomberg Radio, on the TV Food Network,  on Heritage Food Radio, and on many nationwide and local radio and TV shows. She has given cooking demonstrations at numerous gourmet shops, bookstores, farmers markets, and other places. She also gives private and group cooking classes in Southern Italian cooking with an emphasis on la cucina povera and the Mediterranean diet.

Erica De Mane is a longstanding member of the Italian-based SlowFood movement. She lives in Manhattan. Contact her at edemane@earthlink.net.