These days I spend a lot of time reading. It so happens that I was reading a passage about a meal, and now I'm hungry for pasta! It's only 8 in the morning, and I'm craving Fettuccine Alfredo. (Actually, from a nutritional point of view, it's better to eat something heavy and cheesy earlier in the day, so that the food circulates all over your body as you walk around. Instead, if you eat late and go to bed--or stay seated--the food just diffuses to the tissue near your belly, so you're likely to grow your belly.)
I once made Alfredo from scratch from a recipe in a Time/Life book, and it was the most heavenly thing we ever ate. Butter, cream, black pepper, fresh grated Parmesan. Italian cooking is (supposedly) all about the fresh ingredients. In contrast, French cooking is about the sauces, though that's probably an oversimplification.
But there's no doubt that I am hopelessly suggestible; if I read about pizza ...
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