Shortly after Pavarotti branched out to the plebs, everything Italian was suddenly brilliant. Bland wines, flappy suits and shite films all won Joe Bloggs' heart simply because their producer's name rhymed with Gino Ginelli.
Inspired by Italian football – sorry, Gazzetto Italia – my friends and I even Italianised our conversations. We would wave our hands around whilst talking insistent bollocks – 'testiculating'.
There's a lot to love in that enigmatic peninsular, but our conception of Italy and the Italians is deeply flawed. Italy, as most people know it, is just a marketing strategy tailored to sun-starved, sexually-frustrated, status-anxious Anglo-Saxons. Rant over.
So here's what I do love about Italy. First, its groundbreaking television. Secondly, pasta. Everyone has their own carbohydrate league table and for me pasta sits at its summit:
1. Pasta
2. Bread
3. Potatoes
4. Rice
Stand by for some recipes....
Surely the consumption of rice across swathes of Asia constitutes a higher than 4th place finish?
ReplyDeleteI don't give a shit if there's a planet beyond Pluto where everyone eats rice four times a day, this league table boils down to personal choice.
ReplyDeleteAnd I just find that rice offers neither the comfort squidge of pasta, the immediate high of a spud or the magic charms of bread
Just my opinion. What's yours?