Did You Know?

The word “Ravioli” comes from the Italian verb ravvolgere, meaning to wrap.

Legend has it that noodles were first made by 13th century German bakers who fashioned dough into symbolic shapes, such as swords, birds and stars, which were baked and served as bread. There are more than 600 pasta shapes intentionally produced worldwide. Several thousand more are unintentionally shaped by me with my Ronco pasta maker kit.

Cooked “al dente” literally means “to the tooth” which is how to test pasta to see if it is properly cooked. The Pasta should be a bit firm, offering some resistance to the tooth, but tender.

One cup cooked spaghetti provides about 200 calories, 40 grams of carbohydrates, less than one gram of total fat, no cholesterol and only one gram of sodium when cooked without salt.

Pasta is one of America’s favorite foods. Last year, 1.3 million pounds of pasta were sold in American grocery stores.

The average person in Italy eats more that 51 pounds of pasta every year. The average person in North America eats about 15 -1/2 pounds of pasta per year.