Do you have an absolutely perfect pasta dish?

Do you have an absolutely perfect pasta dish?
Oh, God. There are so many, but lasagna bolognese is probably one of the greatest things in the world.

Would you ever open your own restaurant?
I want to, and then my wife looks at me like I’m an idiot. But I really would. It would be very small, tiny and seasonal, practically no menu. Wine on tap. Brown paper on the tables, like an osteria. Like 10 tables. That’s it.

Stanley Tucci, from “Stanley Tucci Doesn’t Think Sweatpants Should be Worn in Public.” The Actor and author of the new book ‘What I Ate in One Year‘.

T.G.I.F.

No physical appearance is worth not eating pasta for.

—  Matt Haig, with “One Beautiful Thing” in “The Comfort Book” (Penguin Life, July 6, 2021)

 


Photo Credit

Truth

Here’s Pavarotti copied from an interview somewhere:

One of the very nicest things about life is the way we must regularly stop whatever it is we are doing and devote our attention to eating.”

Patricia HamplThe Art of the Wasted Day (Published April 17, 2018)

 


Photo: BonAppétit, Pappardelle with Arugula and Prosciutto

 

It’s been a long day

spaghetti-pasta-cheese-dinner

If one day you become sick of words, as happens to us all, and you grow tired of hearing them, of saying them; if whichever you choose seems worn out, dull, disabled; if you feel nauseated when you hear ‘horrible’ or ‘divine’ for some everyday occurrence – you’ll not be cured, obviously, by alphabet soup.

You must do the following: cook a plate of al dente spaghetti dressed with the simplest seasoning – garlic, oil and chili. Over the pasta toss in this mixture, grate a layer of Parmesan cheese. To the right of the deep plate full of the spaghetti thus prepared, place an open book. To the left, place an open book. In front of it a full glass of red wine. Any other company is not recommended. Turn the pages of each book at random, but they must both be poetry. Only good poets cure us of an overindulgence in words. Only simple essential food cures us of gluttony.”

Héctor Abad Faciolince, from Recipes for Sad Women


Notes:

Unfairly Demonised. That’s Right.

pasta-macaroni-and-cheese

1980’s: Replace butter with margarine. Overturned.

1990’s: Eliminate salt. Debunked.

2000’s: Eliminate/reduce carbs.

And today, the big news:

  • Eating pasta is not fattening and actually decreases the chances of becoming obese”
  • “A new survey of more than 23,000 people, however, has linked pasta consumption to both lower body mass and waist-to-hip ratio.”
  • “…also found that the correlation between pasta intake and lower obesity rates occurred independently of overall diet”
  • “evidence that carbohydrates have been “unfairly demonised”.”=
  • “the current trend of people cutting out pasta from their diets in an effort to lose weight was unjustified”
  • “a fundamental component of Italian Mediterranean tradition, and there is no reason to do without it”
  • results clearly show that it is wrong to demonise carbohydrates as the data clearly show that consumption of a carbohydrate-rich food such as pasta does not have an adverse effect on body weight.

Read more at The Telegraph: Eating pasta helps you lose weight, says Italian study

Moral of the story:

1) Wait long enough and it all comes home.

2) Back up the Pasta Truck.

3) Next up: Ice Cream.


Notes: (1) Thank you Rich for sharing the research.  (2) Photo: Credit