Everyday Differences in Puglia: The Pasta Aisle

It does not matter how small or large the supermarket there is always a complete aisle devoted to dried pasta in all it myriad forms. For a hypermarket that is some serious quantities of pasta.

It is so much an integral part of the Italian psyche that it acts as an emotional shorthand. We first noticed it house hunting when we bought Trullo Azzurro back in 2003. Every house we viewed had a bag of pasta placed prominently on the table or kitchen worktop as a piece of set dressing. The same was true in all the furniture shops and kitchen showrooms - there was that bag of pasta whispering "food, home, family".

Rather like the UK house sellers' trick of grilling a coffee bean or baking a loaf of bread to create an enticing aroma but even more universal in application. The central role of pasta in Italian life and soul cannot be disputed.