"Bob Terwilliger" > ha scritto nel messaggio

> ...but you've got to do *something* with the egg whites! Why not put them>
> into pasta?

Meringues are very very popular here!

> The pasta Batali was talking about was from Abruzzo and points south (by
> which I'd guess he meant Molise and maybe Apulia). The pasta Bastianich
> was talking about was from Spoleto

etc. etc. Of course every cook uses up what there is because it is a
practical country other than driving. What you may be missing is that
neither of those two is actually Italian or living here, although Lidia did
until she was 8 and Mario did for a while.. an extended trip. My DD refused
to let me watch the cooking shows on TV when they were "Italian" because I
was yelling at the screen when I was supposed to be taking care of her
sickly self.

Things are offered up as "real Italian" that may be just one person's idea
or only an interpretation of a tradition.

Is it important? Probably not to many people, but I believe tradition is
taught as tradition and embroideries or modernizations are taught as that
and I also believe that you don't teach those without showing the variation.
Without some feeling for reality and history you end up with terrible messes
passing themselves off as good food. There goes the neighborhood.