There is a cookbook called "The Silver Spoon" that supposedly every self-respecting Italian household in Italy has had in their kitchen since 1950. With over 2,000 recipes it is considered the Bible of Italian cooking. I heard about it from an interview with the Italian editor of the cookbook. She said that every newlywed couple receives a copy of this cookbook.

Last month for the first time ever an English version was released. One of the things that I found interesting is that in Italian recipes the ingredients are listed in order of importance with the most important ingredients listed first. American cooks are used to the ingredients being listed in the order that they are called for in the recipe, and that is the way they appear in the English version. I find little things like that fascinating.

Another thing I heard from the book is that grated cheese should always be added to the pasta before you add the sauce. Americans always add the cheese on top of the sauce. The reason is because the cheese will melt on the hot pasta better and release more of its flavor. They also said something about getting sandwiched between the pasta and the sauce, and the cheese gets more evenly distributed and resists clumping or something, but I forgot exactly what they said about that. I was merging onto the Tollway at that point.