La Pasta Non E Un Gioco

Entertainment with Italians is not all about fun and games. There are serious sides to the matter as well, as I have learned. In other words: pasta. 

Fiesta de pasta

My first experience was at about 11:30pm on our first night together. While I was having my friendly conversation with Dickhead Diego, the two boys went to the supermarket. I met them afterwards, and saw that they had bought something. I peeped into the plastic bag, and what I saw made me laugh. All that they had bought to fill our empty fridge was two packets of pasta. I asked them why they hadn’t bought anything to go with the pasta for dinner that night, but they replied that this wasn’t for eating now, it was “just to have at home”. I have learnt that no Italian household gets away with not having any pasta in the cupboard. 

Team work

I have also learned that a specific sauce only goes with a specific kind of pasta. For example, Carbonara is only allowed to go with Spaghetti, Pesto is only allowed to go with Penne. I have learned never to cook pasta in this household, as when I offered to make tuna pasta or when I told them that I knew how to make Lasagna, I was simply laughed at. I have learned when and how much salt and oil goes into boiling water when cooking pasta, although the technique depends on what part of Italy you are from. If you are from Rome, you put salt into the boiling water and oil into the sauce. If you are from Florence, you put both salt and oil into the boiling water at about the same time. The concept of boiling water also differs depending on the region of Italy, of course. The only time I see Rocco and Stefano have an argument is when they are cooking pasta: “The water’s already boiling, put the pasta in!” followed by “You call that boiling?? You call yourself Italian??”.