English spaghetti

What nonsense! I would buy it, too. I heard it said that pasta originated in England before Italy was producing it.

......and China, too. Isn't that where Marco Polo brought it back from?

Do you know, it has never once occurred to me that the wheat for making pasta had to be grown in Italy. "Made in" only means things were put together in the made in place. The parts can come from anywhere.

Won't any hard wheat do?

janerowena On the first episode of Nigel & Adams Farm Kitchen 3 weeks ago Adam planted out a crop of Durum Wheat in one of the fields to show it could be grown well here and then Nigel went on to have it ground locally and made the spaghetti then he did the costings and it worked very well indeed its a pity the big supermarkets don't jump on board as I would certainly use it,their next programme is on to-night can't wait to watch it.

Some durum wheat is grown in North Dakota. Pasta is probably made there too.

Didn't they grow durum wheat and make pasta from it on Countryfile recently?

Italy probably gets huge subsidies for this crop from the EU as they do for their rice harvest, stopping a lot of needy countries from selling theirs to us.

I hadn't realised it had been on tv recently, maybe that will get things moving then? It's ridiculous. I know Italy struggles financially, but we need something else to grow to make up for all the other things we no longer seem to be allowed to produce! It's almost as if they are trying to make each country only grow one or two crops each, which could be disastrous in a bad year. I wish I could go back and tell the farmer that they have been growing it and showing it on tv, maybe it would give him a bit of hope.

I was actually in the cafe in England's only distillery. Buying a bottle of whisky for OH. The farmers were there selling their crops to the distillery. They must be doing well with the whisky, another six walked in as I left.

http://www.englishwhisky.co.uk/

Just in case anyone needs a very different Christmas present - DBH and his father love it.

Jane there's also a gin & whisky distillery in London!

London Distillery

I would buy British spaghetti

just looked durum up on everyone's favourite encyclopaedia. Apparently it is high protein but not high gluten - so not good for bread. Different kinds of protein I guess.
I would buy Made in Wales pasta.

If it were cheaper than Italian pasta I would buy it from anywhere. I now look at the price before I look at the label and country of origin.

I would certainly buy it and I would tell the TV chefs (yes, you, Jamie and Nigella) to stop banging on about all things Italian and promote British pasta.

Having said that, and I'm sure those farmers knew what they were talking about, millers would need to devise a whole new marketing system and the future's market might be a problem in determining supplies at a price.

That's why people with gluten intolerance can usually manage a small amount of pasta in their diet. My sister can manage a couple of ounces.

Oh dear, it looks as if St. Georges' has new competition! It was bound to happen I suppose, the London one only started up a couple of years ago but even though it means more competition for the poor Scots, I'd rather we made it than the japanese.

What I want to know is - why don't the supermarkets at least give us the chance to buy british pasta? Welsh pasta might be a bit soggy. Jimmy and these farmers are in the East, where we get more droughts than floods. Although Wales can be lovely and warm. I think Waitrose must be very unimaginative and cautious.

Its the sort of thing I used to have heated debates with my DSs about - is posh branded Italian pasta any better than cheap Asda pasta? They stuck up for posh but now I think they are older and wiser. Hard lessons of the recession.

Some pasta, including dried pasta, is better than others and it usually costs more. That said, is the British so unsophisticated that it thinks Italian pasta is exotic – in the twenty-first century?

when The dates don't work for the Marco Polo story. Pasta was around in Italy before he went near China. A kind of pre-pasta existed in ancient Etruria long before that.

what is better about it absent ?

I can tell the difference between good pasta and less good pasta. There are differences of taste and al dentiness (texture) that i find quite noticeable. I've no idea whether my preferred pasta is Italian or not.

Because I can't remember what make i buy. I just recognise the packet when i'm shopping.

Anyone tried Lidl's pasta? Tastes good and really cheap too

I've used Marshall's Macaroni made in Scotland for years now whenever I am making macaroni cheese. I buy De Cecco linguini or penne for other pasta dishes. I've tried various fresh and dried pastas over the years but these two are my preference.

I am reminded of that wonderful TV programme where Richard Dimbleby (I think) was reporting on the spaghetti harvest in front of trees festooned with it.

Panorama on April 1 some time in the 1960s, I think.

Yes, pastas do vary, and the value ones often need a longer cooking time, but still they are perfectly edible and for anyone feeding a family, especially someone like me with a teen boy, the thought of paying waitrose prices is horrific. Occasionally I splurge on weird and wonderful pastas for special occasions, for for everyday use the value stuff is fine. We occasionally make our own linguine and tagliatelle from bread flour and that is delicious. I do feel quite cross that we aren't growing something here that could make quite a big difference to our farmers when they are struggling.