>There's not much here I'd
>disagree with, although I'm not (yet!) convinced that they eat more
>tomatoes than any other fruit of vegetable. Be interesting to find out,
>though. Wheat??? Remember it's used , in the form of grain wheat, as a

I guess from a scientific standpoint wheat is a fruit, but it common parlance
it is usually not classed as such. I don't have the statistics at hand, but I
have no doubt that Italians eat more wheat pound for pound than they do
tomatoes. I don't know how to test your view that Italians possibly eat more
wheat when it is consumed as a vegetable than they do tomatoes. I'd find that
difficult to believe.

>>
>> Finally, we're back to what is a national cuisine. Do the Italians have
>one?
>
>I think they do - in the same way as the French do. It's a collection
>of different regional cuisines, in the same way.

We're back to this discussion -- which I found useful-- so let me try again.
Are there commonalities among regional Italian foods? If the answer is yes,
what are they? Does this include dishes with tomatoes as ingredients?

If the answer is no, then there doesn't seem to be an "Italian cuisine," only
local cusines-- or are there just individual preferences?

Andy Smith