Six Seasons of Pasta with Joshua McFadden

Nov 21, 2025
1h 1m

Episode Description

Dave and the crew welcome chef and author Joshua McFadden to talk about his new book Six Seasons of Pasta: A New Way with Everyone’s Favorite Food. They get deep into dried vs fresh pasta, why salting your water to around 1% actually matters, the right way to use olive oil at the beginning and the end, and how a 50/50 Parm–pecorino mix behaves in the pan. Joshua explains the thinking behind his “six seasons,” why he’s obsessed with dried noodles, granular pesto, tuna mac, and nut ragù, and how no-boil lasagna sheets somehow made the cut. Along the way they veer into onion-tart sandbagging, salted cooking wine, U.S. butter politics, zucchini as “water bags,” pears vs apples in the Willamette Valley, cabbage glory, and Dave’s pressure-cooked Westphalian pumpernickel experiments.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

See all episodes

Never lose your place, on any device

Create a free account to sync, back up, and get personal recommendations.