I got an email recently from my friend and colleague Tom Maresca with the news that he and his wife, Diane Darrow, have (as he put it) “given birth to a new book,” christened “Not the Same Old Spaghetti Sauce.”
I was glad to receive this birth announcement since I greatly admire Maresca and Darrow’s 
previous books, “La Tavola Italiana” and “The Seasons of the Italian Kitchen.” (Tom also has published two books on wine, “Mastering Wine” and “The Right Wine,” and has also published several guest columns here on Wine Review Online). Like its predecessors, “Not the Same Spaghetti Sauce” has a very distinct Italian flavor, and like them also, the writing and the recipes are clear-cut and engaging. This new book, however, is different in many ways from the first two, and for that matter it’s different from all other cookbooks in my collection.
To begin with, “Not the Same” is a self-described “mini cookbook,” consisting of only ten pasta recipes. All the recipes are tomato based, which is a special blessing this time of year when tomatoes are so wonderfully ripe and flavorful as well as plentiful in back yards, farmers’ markets and farm stands.
Another thing that distinguishes this collection of recipes is that it’s an e-book, published by Hang Time Press and available from Amazon and Barnes & Noble (if you don’t have Kindle or Nook you can download a free reader for your computer on those sites), as well as iTunes. Best of all, “Not the Same Spaghetti Sauce” costs a modest $2.99.
“After innumerable dinners prepared, eaten and cleaned up after together, [Tom and Diane] still
don’t agree on the best way to stack a dishwasher, but they totally agree on the joys of direct, 
lively flavors treated in simple, straightforward ways.” Their basic approach to food and cooking can be summed up in one bit of advice in the introduction: Get the best ingredients you can lay your hands on and don’t interfere with them.
The book is chockfull of notes about the recipes and ingredients, and thoughtful suggestions for pairing wines with the specific dishes are included. I’m eager to make the Zitti with Fennel Tomato Sauce (“From the first taste we were addicted,” write the authors, describing their introduction to the dish during a visit to wine country near Naples). Mezzani with Eggplant sounds delicious too, but I think the first recipe I’ll tackle is Fusilli with Pork Tenderloin Medallions. “A hearty dish like this wants a hearty wine to stand up to it,” the authors advise. “Try either a good Pugliese Primitivo or a Monepulcianno d’Abruzzo. A fruity, simple Zinfandel will work well too. Ample acidity and plenty of fruit are keys to the match.”
In the introduction to this recipe Tom and Diane write, “Pork in any form–chops, shanks, sausages–makes magic when combined with tomatoes.” My mouth is watering already, so I’m heading off now to buy a pork tenderloin….
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