"We overcook pasta, we serve it in immense portions, and we oversauce it."

But Mr. Brown's culinary shortcuts, plus his tendency to oversauce foods and overfill plates, contributes to an overall perception of nebulous dullness and density on the plate.

And TRATTORIA COOKING (346 pp., Macmillan, $25), by Biba Caggiano, spells them out emphatically - never oversauce the pasta, for instance, and there can be beauty in the sparseness of ingredients when they are unstinting in their quality.