Southern Italians, it seemed, stayed healthy on diets that included olive oil and a daily dose of pasta. What followed was a fascination with all foods Italian. Trattorias sprang up everywhere. Today you can barely go into a restaurant without seeing some sort of pasta on the menu. The problem is that so few of those dishes are good.
Some places simply cover the noodles with melted butter and then serve a boring clump.
Others serve heavy cream sauces that get thick, sticky and unpleasant. Still others open a can of commercial tomato sauce and call it a house specialty. Perhaps my background makes me persnickety about pasta. All four of my grandparents were born in Italy and our family ate pasta at least once a week. I've also learned that making a good, authentic Italian pasta dish is a challenging job.