PASTA

Pasta can be defined as one of the pillars of the Italian gastronomic specialities with its varieties of shapes, and with its possibilities of combination with different seasonings, represents the most appreciated and enjoyed first course of our diet. For sometime dieticians have been considering pasta as the principal food, the basis of the socalled. Mediterranean diet, and it must be said that Italians have confirmed what is a usage of almost all regions in Italy, that is to consider pasta as the main course in the true sense of the word of every important meal. Italians are so attached to their eating habits that they have difficulty in adapting themselves to other habits when they go abroad.In fact it happens to hear a dinner party of Italians asking over and over again for bread in Vienne, Berlin or London, or to see Italian tourists looking for grains of pasta in a fish soup in Barcelona, Lisbon or Athens. In some northern European countries or in the USA, Italians are related immediatly to spaghetti and pizza as if these two foundamental ingredients of our diet were an identity card, a national flag or a badge. That is why we want to get our European partuers to know something more about the fascinating subject of pasta, being confident that one day the tourists in Italy will admire not only our numerous monuments but also this basic product of our table, oppure diet.