DID YOU KNOW?

• Americans typically eat 19 pounds of pasta per person each year.
• Despite the new trendy shapes, spaghetti and elbow macaroni remain America's favorite pastas.
• North Dakota produces 80 percent of the durum wheat used to make pasta.
• America's pasta industry began to grow during World War I, when war, embargos and blockades made it impossible to transport pasta from Italy.
• Pasta is healthy food. It contains less than one gram of fat in a half-cup serving.
• In Italian, the word fettucine means "small ribbon."
• In 18th century Italy, the pasta maker sat on a bench and mixed the dough with his feet.
• Until the early 1830s, when tomatoes began to be used, pasta was eaten plain, or with cheese.
• Durum wheat originated in the Middle East, but was brought to the Dakotas by the Germans who had settled in southern Russia at the time of Catherine the Great.
• Different pasta shapes reflect regional creativity, as well as the search to find appropriate shapes to support and enhance a variety of sauces.
• Pasta is probably the simplest recipe in the world: semolina and water.