Page 16 - A Life - my Live - my path

Little moment in life - Pasta e Fagioli
One of the great specialities of Italy is "Pasta e Fagioli".
My mother used to make us this typical dish, which is
prepared in every region of Italy with slight differences.
In our family, while we all agreed on the fagioli (beans), the
choice of pasta was a dilemma. For my sister, handmade
pasta cut into pieces was the ultimate choice. For me, it was
1 cm long macaroni with a diameter big enough to fit a
fagiolo. One day, to convince my sister that my choice was
the right one, I gave her the following explanation:

When you put a pasta in your mouth with a bean inside,
you start to dig into the flesh, this already gives you a
feeling of pleasure, but when you crush the bean, this

develops that special flavour, you then get that inimitable
taste of "Pasta e Fagioli". Hilarious, she calmly caught her
breath, looked at me and said: "You've got serious
problems!".

A few months went by, and then one day, a little
embarrassed, she whispered in my ear: "I have to tell you
something: at the European Commission, we were in the
5
hallway with some Italian colleagues and President Prodi
and we were talking about the cuisine of the different
regions of Italy.
I listened to them describe certain recipes, some more
typical than others.

5 Romano Prodi was President of the European Commission from 21
September 1999 to 22 November 2004.
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