Sicilians and Southern Italians have evolved the making and eating of pasta into a fine art. The more deeply you are involved in the experience, the better you can orchestrate the range of opportunities that pasta brings to satisfying your taste and enjoyment of Southern Italian eating. Here are some of my basic tenets about pasta:

• Fresh pasta, when rolled of hard winter wheat and egg and cooked “al dente” (firm and springy yet deliciously tender), absorbs sauces more readily than commercial dried pasta. Try to avoid too much sauce.
• Fresh pasta is delicate and deserves the lightest, least assertive sauce.
• Choose tubular and concave pasta shapes made of durum wheat and water. The shapes are designed to trap sauce. Use these pastas when you want a lot of sauce in each bite.
• Delicate sauces are best served with delicate pasta.

A rich sauce should be served with flat pasta, or a pasta shape that does not trap or accumulate much of the sauce in each bite.

• Thickness and texture of the pasta shape affects the taste of the pasta.
• Most Sicilians enjoy wine with their pasta even though there is a school of thought that says you should drink water with your pasta.
• Choose wines based on the sauce that you serve. When it comes to wine, be adventurous.