Six Seasons of Pasta: A New Way with Everyone's Favorite Food

by Joshua McFadden

In the follow-up to Six A New Way with Vegetables, James Beard Award–winning author Joshua McFadden teaches home cooks how to use storebought dried pasta to create seasonal, restaurant-quality dishes at home. Named a Best New Cookbook of Fall 2025 by Bon Appetit & Epicurious, Eater, Publishers Weekly, Saveur, and more.

In Six A New Way with Vegetables, Joshua McFadden's approach to seasonal produce revolutionized the way we cook with vegetables. Now, he's back to transform the way we cook and eat pasta. In Six Seasons of Pasta, noodles become the perfect showcase for each season's bounty of produce. There are more than 125 recipes organized by season, plus the Italian classics that everyone should have in their repertoire, from Cacio e Pepe to Pasta Fagiole (three ways!). Artichokes with Tomato and Mint celebrates the fresh, delicate flavors of spring; Fall's warming notes are reflected in Mushrooms with Onion, Pancetta, and Cream; and a classic Winter dish like Baked Ziti with Broccoli Rabe is hearty and nourishing. And the best part? These recipes are all made using storebought dried pasta. Six Seasons of Pasta does so much more than pair noodles with seasonal produce. The book teaches us how to intuitively cook a perfect pasta dish from scratch using McFadden's no-fail “build-the-sauce-in-the-skillet” method. McFadden's time-tested technique will always result in a satisfying and delicious bowl of pasta.
  
 

  
 
 

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Nonfiction, Food

392 pages, Hardcover

Published September 30, 2025

About the author

Joshua McFadden is executive chef/owner of Portland, Oregon’s Ava Gene’s, which Bon Appétit has named a “Top 10 Best New Restaurant.” Before moving to Portland, McFadden helped define the burgeoning Brooklyn food scene when he was chef de cuisine at Franny’s; his other restaurant experience includes Momofuku, Blue Hill, and Lupa in New York and the groundbreaking raw food restaurant Roxanne’s in Larkspur, California. McFadden also spent time in Rome, cooking at Alice Waters’s project in sustainable dining at the American Academy. He kindled his love of soil, seeds, and seasons during two years as farm manager at Maine’s Four Season Farm, founded by sustainability pioneers Eliot Coleman and Barbara Damrosch. McFadden’s latest restaurant, Tusk, opened in Portland, Oregon in 2016.

Reviews

[Violet · Rating 5 out of 5]

Who doesn't love pasta? There are detailed instructions on how to perfectly cook store-bought dry pasta and combine it with seasonal produce to create many memorable and satisfying meals. The six steps on how to sauce pasta with a ragu will take your pasta dish to a new level.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a very thorough pasta cookbook. I especially liked that McFadden only uses dried pasta for all the recipes. Making fresh pasta is not that hard, but it does take much longer. I feel like focusing on dried pasta makes this much more accessible for the average home cook. He starts out with some basic sauce recipes, then goes into any season and seasonal pasta recipes. There are a LOT of recipes in this book, so you're bound to find something you'll like.

[Elizabeth]

As heard on The Splendid Table: Conversations & Recipes For Curious Cooks & Eaters (836: Italian Two Ways with Chefs Joshua McFadden and Christian Petroni)

This week, we’re diving into Italian cooking, from the Pacific Northwest to the Bronx. First, chef and author Joshua McFadden joins us to talk about Six Seasons of Pasta, his love letter to everyone’s favorite food. Known for his hit cookbook Six Seasons: A New Way with Vegetables, Joshua brings that same seasonal sensibility to pasta, pairing local produce with traditional Italian technique, and shares his recipe for Nut Ragu. Then, Bronx-born chef Christian Petroni takes us into the heart of Italian American cooking with his debut cookbook, Parm to Table. From chicken cutlets to clams casino, he celebrates the cozy red-sauce dishes that define Sunday dinners across America and leaves us with his Chicken Scarpariello recipe.

Broadcast dates for this episode: 

October 17, 2025 (originally aired)

Our annual cookbook giveaway is live!  To enter for free, visit splendidtable.org/cookbook

Donate to The Splendid Table today and we will show our appreciation with a special thank-you gift.

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[Miranda Beystehner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Six Seasons of Pasta is a beautiful cookbook that brings traditional Italian cooking into your kitchen with ingredients you can easily find at the grocery store. I lived in Italy for a short time and often miss the food, so this book was a fun and nostalgic way to reconnect with those flavors. It taught me how to pick out great ingredients and gave me tips to make my dishes taste more authentic, without needing anything fancy.

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the first 50 pages. Normally, I jump straight to the recipes, but the intro sections are packed with helpful info. There’s advice on choosing the best boxed pasta, oils, and canned tomatoes, plus tips like how much salt to use when boiling water. There are also some simple pantry recipes included, like pesto and flavored butters.

The rest of the book is organized by season, focusing on veggies that are in season at different times of the year. I like to keep things simple, so I started with the Basil Pesto, Aglio e Olio, and Pomodoro. All three turned out great – the ingredients were easy to find, the instructions were clear, and the end results were delicious. I’m excited to try more recipes soon.

I highly recommend Six Seasons of Pasta to anyone who enjoys Italian food or wants to cook it more often at home. It’s informative without being overwhelming, and it offers a wealth of knowledge and approachable recipes. I read a digital ARC, but I’m already planning to purchase a hard copy to add to my cookbook collection.

Big thanks to NetGalley and Artisan Books for the advance copy!

[Francesca Ricciardi · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the type of cook book you can just sit down and read.

Joshua McFadden has his own philosophies and journey into cooking and infuses it into all his books.
He talks about everything you want and need to know about veggies before even getting started with recipes.

The book is divided into the veggies by season.

He gives recipes for basic staples that you can use in all your recipes that are fantastic.
Explains brining, pickling etc. Recipes for many dressings for salads etc.
A whole first section of the book with incredible recipes and staple information that is wnderful.

He suggests and explains his favorite tools and core ingredients for cooking in general and then gives very detailed info on every recipe and suggestions on many other ways to utilize the recipes.

I am not normally a big cook book reader but I took these out of the library and then realized I had to have these books. Veggies are the main staple of my diet so between this book and the pasta one he wrote I have so many new recipes and ideas to explore in the kitchen.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gorgeous!
Gorgeous pictures, gorgeous illustrations and gorgeous recipes
I usually consider a cook book a hit if I want to make 4+ recipes, here I want to make almost every single one.
Interesting and informative I don’t think it matters if you’re a complete beginner or have been cooking for years, there’s something here for everyone and plenty of useful tips.
I love how there are the usual recipes you’d expect to see in a pasta cook book but also unusual ones that I’ve never heard of but will definitely try and find a great change when I’m stuck for what to make for dinner.
A book I will be referring back to for a long time to come.

Thanks to Netgalley for this arc

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like Joshua McFadden's other two Six Seasons... cookbooks, this is a big, beautiful tome brimming with unique and time-tested taste combinations. With chapters for Ragu, Any Season, Spring, Mid Summer, Late Summer, Fall, and Winter, you'll be covered any time of year. The three summer chapters are brimming with vegetables while the winter has a great collection of cozier dishes. Amazing cookbook. Can't wait to right dig in!

The recipes are fairly easy to follow with a good mix of simple plates and some that are much more involved. Pictures are gorgeous. Thank you so much to the publisher and NetGalley for a chance to review this stunning cookbook!

[Macy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderfully written and illustrated cookbook. It starts off as a teaching guide about everything from start to finish we need to know. From how to salt the water, to all the types of pasta, how to cook it and ultimately to eating it. Basic simple pasta with garlic butter to all kinds of delicious, but sophisticated sauces with lots of proteins and or vegetarian versions. The recipes are easy to follow and delicious. There isn’t a craving or mood that one of these recipes will satisfy.

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley.com in exchange for a fair and honest review.

[Bebo Saucier Carrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me an ARC of this book for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I desperately want to learn more about cooking with the seasons because it's a more sustainable way of living, and this book delivered! I was absolutely enchanted by this collection of recipes that uses seasonal flavors in various pastas. Also, I feel Highly Enlightened about pasta now.

I will be purchasing McFadden's other books in tandem with this one so I can obtain ALL the fun seasonal recipes!!

[Danielle Mccoy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received a copy of this eBook from netGalley for a honest review.

What a yummy cookbook! The recipes look so very good and easy to recreate. I loved the every season recipes but the ones for each season looked wonderful too.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

This series is really great. There is so much information, research, explanation and creativity in this cookbook. I naively expected that I would get ideas but wouldn’t need to own this… and I am seriously reconsidering that.

[Maxim Lipka · Rating 3 out of 5]

обожаю книжки в которых раскрывается сезонность тем или иным образом. здесь очень комфортная история и в целом достаточно интересные рецепты. все посвящено исключительно покупным видам пасты. короче заебись в целом

[Kristen Barenthaler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great pasta recipes with a bunch of different accompaniments. I would make them all for family dinners and visiting guests.

[Lisa H · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pasta and vegetables...

A luscious combination. A delightful cookbook featuring pasta in both simple and complex ways.
Highly recommend.

[Juli Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Solid, but without the sparkle of their previous titles.

[Virginia]

Not for me. I have his vegetables book and love it

[Lydia Kass · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very thorough directions with pictures for each dish.

[Jodi Bennett · Rating 5 out of 5]

Italy in my kitchen on a weeknight, yes please. The recipes all use dried pasta and following the Italian way of simple flavors done perfectly. This is a game changer for Italian night.