Food writer and culinary instructor Domenica Marchetti, who specializes in contemporary Italian home cooking, describes pasta not only an economical dish to prepare but also “the busy cook’s best friend in the kitchen.”

Marchetti, the author of “The Glorious Pasta of Italy” (Chronicle), says pasta can be speedily cooked, and it also opens the floodgates to a home cook’s creative streak whether packaged or made-from-scratch pasta is used.

She covers equipment and ingredients for preparing and serving pasta and chapters with recipes on using it in soup, with sauce, baked, stuffed – even “dolce” (sweet) versions.