At my first meal, on my first trip to Italy I ordered ‘penne’ at a restaurant in Treviso called “Da Dino” The proprietor Dino looked at me and said ‘bravo’. Then I said “penne pomodoro” – he looked impressed. And then in a moment of pride, to maximize the amount of words I could use I said “penne pomodoro al dente, per favore” he gave me an evil eye. What happened next was something I’ll never forget and I captured it on video because I’ve been documenting everything since before it was easy. Here’s the 2001 video of Dino serving me a plate of raw pasta. This was featured on huffingtonpost
