October 25 is World Pasta Day

Thursday, October 25, is World Pasta Day. The primary purpose of World Pasta Day is to promote the culinary and nutritional benefits of pasta.

Eating Italian food is one of the pleasures of traveling in Italy. Italian regions, and even some towns, have special pasta unique to that area such as the Ligurian croxeti shown on the right.

Pasta is a large part of the Italian and Mediterranean diet. Italians eat more pasta than anyone else in the world and Italy makes about a third of the pasta consumed worldwide.

It's believed that pasta has been around for at least several thousand years. Pasta-making utensils have been found in Etruscan tombs and ancient Roman archaeological sites making it likely that pasta has been eaten by Italians for a long time.

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_{Photo of croxetti pasta with pesto, traditional pasta from Liguria © 2006 by Martha Bakerjian, licensed to about.com}