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1 week ago | 
pastasocialclub.substack.com | Meryl Feinstein
In March, I traveled to Puglia with a group of people I’d never met before. It was my first time back in Italy after nearly seven years—a trip that had, in 2018, quite literally changed my life—and it was well worth the wait. There were 12 of us, strangers who love pasta that, after a week of touring, eating, and learning, became friends who love pasta.
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3 weeks ago | 
pastasocialclub.substack.com | Meryl Feinstein
Summer is here, and with it a familiar tale of two seasons: A season of simplicity, favoring food made with few, fresh ingredients and very little time. And a season of sociality, embracing thoughtful, unhurried meals made for gathering and spending warm evenings outdoors.
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4 weeks ago | 
pastasocialclub.substack.com | Meryl Feinstein
Here’s a well-rounded, weeknight-ready dish to make all summer long. It’s inspired by a recipe from the only cookbook I actually use on a regular basis: The Magic of Tinned Fishby Chris McDade. I know I’m not alone in harboring an extensive cookbook collection, one that’s less tastefully curated and more crazy hoarder. I also know I’m not alone in the fact that I rarely cook from any of them.
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1 month ago | 
pastasocialclub.substack.com | Meryl Feinstein
Yesterday, I turned 35. I’m not one to give birthdays much weight, but this one felt big, like I’d officially crossed some invisible threshold from less-real adulthood into real-real adulthood. Like many of my generation, I have yet to check off most traditional real-real-adulthood milestones like having a kid or a house or a white picket fence—but I still feel different, in some minute, inexplicable way.
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1 month ago | 
pastasocialclub.substack.com | Meryl Feinstein
Today I’m taking some R&R after an especially busy few weeks, so instead of our usual programming, I thought I’d share one of my favorite sauces from my cookbook, Pasta Every Day: a very delicious, very refreshing citrus & pistachio pesto.
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1 month ago | 
pastasocialclub.substack.com | Meryl Feinstein
I often talk about pasta like it’s a living, breathing thing, an old friend with thoughts and feelings and very outspoken opinions. And if I were more scientifically inclined, I might try to convince you that pasta is, in fact, just like us, with its own taxonomic classifications. Because pasta is not one thing, but hundreds of things, and those things can, more or less, be categorized by what they look like and how they’re made.
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2 months ago | 
pastasocialclub.substack.com | Meryl Feinstein
Lasagne is one of those dishes that comfortably falls into the All-Day, Probably Winter Cooking category—but what if it didn’t? Today I’m sharing a recipe that might change your mind about what a lasagne could be (and what it doesn’t have to be—see: all-day, probably winter), a lasagne that’s designed for warm weather and hails from the stunning Italian Riviera: lasagne alla Portofino. Like many lasagne, lasagne alla Portofino is made with tender sheets of pasta and creamy béchamel.
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2 months ago | 
pastasocialclub.substack.com | Meryl Feinstein
As I sit here munching on matzah, I thought I’d use this pasta-free week as an opportunity to tell you about a few things I’ve been enjoying lately, and also to announce something exciting: my first product collaboration. You probably know that I am very particular about the things I use in my kitchen, and even more particular about the brands I promote—I will never, ever recommend something I do not fully stand behind.
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2 months ago | 
pastasocialclub.substack.com | Meryl Feinstein
Here’s another recipe that got stuck in my head solely for the poetry of its name—because you all know how much I lovealliteration. It’s also a recipe that, fortuitously, turned out so incredibly well that it easily found a home on my Favorite Recipes I’ve Ever Developed list.
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2 months ago | 
pastasocialclub.substack.com | Meryl Feinstein
Once there was a priest who loved to hunt. On one occasion, so consumed was he by the lure of the forest—or, perhaps, he was just a bit stupid—the priest set off without proper provisions and too little food to fuel his day. Upon returning home, he was ravenous, so hungry he would have eaten anything at all, even “poor and dry” polenta.