Did you know...
In the 1500s Italian etiquette specified that people were supposed to eat with their hands, and there were right and wrong ways to do it - picking up food with just the thumb and the first two fingers and being careful not to dirty the ring finger and the pinky. That was a sign of proper breeding, but using all five fingers was not considered uncouth! So the fork was invented in Tuscany as a utensil to eat pasta and in the 1600s the fork had become a status symbol among the wealthy!
Italians consider proper etiquette to eat pasta with a fork, but not a fork and a spoon. Experts suggest that the pasta be served in wide bowls, as the role of the bowl is to provide a surface against which the noodles can be turned on the fork.
The average person in Italy eats 61 pounds of pasta per year. The average Sicilian eats 92 pounds per year.
There are 600 different shapes of pasta!!