Odette Williams on pasta, pleasure, and… more pasta!

Salt & Spine

Hi there! After a short break last week, we’re back with new episodes and bonus content for subscribers. This week, cookbook author Odette Williams joined us in our studio at The Civic Kitchen in San Francisco to talk pasta.

* Do you love Salt + Spine? We’d love if you shared this email with a friend who might want to #TalkCookbooks with us, too:

Episode 145: Odette Williams

This week, Odette Williams joins us on Salt + Spine to #TalkCookbooks!

Odette was an actor long before she started calling herself a cook (or an author). She called Sydney home until 2006 and credits the unpretentious, adventurous attitude of Australia for her own approach to cooking.

Leaving Sydney for love, Odette joined her now-husband in New York and started a family. As she was spending more time cooking with her children, she was inspired to design high-quality aprons just for kids. (The aprons were a hit and sold by goop, J. Crew, and Anthropologie; Odette jokes that she quickly became the “apron lady.”)

While Odette’s career as a food writer grew (her new Wall Street Journal column, Party Trick, makes entertaining easy), those aprons also ended up in the hands of a couple of editors at the cookbook publishing house Ten Speed Press—and, well, the cookbook cards fell into place.

Heavily influenced by the food writing of prolific cookbook author Donna Hay and the recipes she found in the monthly Australian Women's Weekly magazine, Odette’s recipes are clear, concise, and simply delicious.

Odette’s first cookbook, Simple Cake, featured recipes for basic cakes that could be customized and combined in a number of different ways.

And now, Odette’s back with her second cookbook: Simple Pasta. In a similar vein to Simple Cake, this book provides some building blocks—dough recipes, and a few sauces—that can be customized to your mood. But the book explodes with dozens of creative recipes from cocktails to starters to salads. And of course, lots of pasta.

There are classics—cacio e pepe and carbonara and so on. But the seasonally divided book also offers recipes like Peppery Pappardelle, Pancetta & Mushrooms … Sweet Corn & Jalapeno Ravioli … to a Luxe Mac & Cheese that Odette says is “bordering on hedonistic.” The emphasis here is fresh pasta—which Odette says you can and should make!—though notes indicate where store-bought dried pasta can stand in.

We’ve got a great episode for you today: In today’s show, we’re talking with Odette about how she settled into this career, about the success of her “Simple” books, and why pasta is sometimes better for serving 2 than 20. And of course, we’re putting her to the test in our signature culinary game.

Bonus Content + Recipes This Week

This week, paid subscribers will receive:

* Two recipes from Simple Pasta: the Garganelli with Vodka Sauce and the Winter Chicories with Date and Anchovy Dressing. Yum:

* An exclusive author-read except: Hear Odette read her love letter to pasta from Simple Pasta!

* The next installment of our bookseller Q&A: This week, Bonnie Slotnick joins us. (Fun fact: She started by selling books at Kitchen Arts & Letters!)

Salt + Spine is supported by listeners like you. To get full access to our exclusive content and featured recipes, and support our work, consider becoming a paid subscriber.

This Week’s New Cookbook Releases

Here are a few of the new cookbooks on shelves this week:

* Smitten Kitchen Keepers: New Classics for Your Forever Files by Deb Perelman

* Tasty Total Comfort: Cozy Recipes with a Modern Touch: An Official Tasty Cookbook

* Baking Bread with Kids: Trusty Recipes for Magical Homemade Bread by Jennifer Latham

* Avocadomania: Everything about Avocados from Aztec Delicacy to Superfood: Recipes, Skincare, Lore, & More by Déborah Holtz & Juan Carlos Mena

* The Anchor Brewing Story: America's First Craft Brewery & San Francisco's Original Anchor Steam Beer by David Burkhart

* Cocktail Time!: The Ultimate Guide to Grown-Up Fun by Paul Feig

* The Pastry Chef Handbook: La Patisserie de Reference by Pierre Paul Zeiher and Jean Michel Truchelut

* Steve the Bartender's Cocktail Guide by Steven Roennfeldt

* Eat Plants, B*tch: 91 Vegan Recipes That Will Blow Your Meat-Loving Mind by Pinky Cole

* Seattle Cocktails: An Elegant Collection of Over 100 Recipes Inspired by the Emerald City by Neil Ratliff

🍪 COOKIE SWAP WITH US!

Attention Bay Area fans: Our fifth-annual Cookie Swap is coming up on Sunday, Dec. 11 — and we can’t wait to see you there! Reserve your spot here and find more details below.

Join us for a fun-packed event featuring loads of cookies to admire and sample (some made by you!, if you like), baking and decorating demos, and glasses of sparkling wine or warm apple cider.

You’re invited to wander about our kitchen, tasting cookies made by The Civic Kitchen team and cookbook authors featured on Salt+Spine. Learn baking tips from our live demos, including by Salt+Spine host Brian Hogan Stewart, a surprise Cookbook Author (or 2), and a bevy of Civic Kitchen teachers.

Throughout it all, we’ll swap cookies with new and old friends. Bring one dozen (or more) homemade cookies and trade them for another mixed dozen to take home. No time to bake? You can still take away cookies for $10 per dozen.

We will have some exciting giveaways, including baking books, Salt+Spine t-shirts and more! Proceeds from the event benefit La Cocina, supporting their talented Bay Area food entrepreneurs.

If you love cookies or cookbooks (or both), you do not want to miss this event!

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit saltandspine.substack.com/subscribe