Italian Cooking

I live in a town with a high proportion of Italians whose ancestors were recruited by rich Americans (Rockefellers, etc.) to build their "country" estates out here at the turn of the 20th century, conveniently accessible from NYC by their private railcar.

And so, extraordinary stone mansions were built by extraordinary Italian stone craftsmen. Of course, "old country" cooking followed. It's primarily "we have a bunch of these tomatoes, our herders brought us some cheese, whatever are we to do?" And pizza and a myriad of pasta-tomato sauce-cheese dishes came to America. Each virtually identical in makeup, but in true cultural pride, given different names. There are somewhere around a zillion shapes of pasta, each with its own name and "gravy" that has to be simmered for hours.

Curmudgeons don't play that game. We buy Spatini powder for "gravy" and any convenient spaghetti. Surprise! Tastes great.