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Good pastas have always been a good source of memories of the old country and particularly Rome. It has been over ten years since my return from the old country and I not only miss the cooking, I miss the gests surrounding their dishes and preparations that Italy and particularly Rome had been noted for. My landlady would come up with a fruity plate of figs they harvested from a family plot and there would be a chance to sample some of the gnocchi that she prepared religiously every Thursday. Each dish had their characteristic scent.  Those were part of the sights and sounds that I miss near my last home in the Colle Prenestina or hilly region on the east side, just outside the ring road that surrounds metropolitan Roam and all its districts.

 In the summers I would paint on my balcony while the sweet smell of tomato sauce and basil leaves was simmering on the stove almost ready to be added to some whole grained thinner cousin to spaghetti, spaghettini.  I had become more discerning with time and quite frankly the thinner grain meant less cooking time too so I switched from spaghetti.

I was encourages to peel my Italian tomatoes and let that simmer until the water had evaporated so that the essential juices would be kept for the sauce. Trying the concentrated version of spicy tomato pastes really did nothing for my palate and I also learned the value of garnishing that would add a particular zest to a simple plate like a piece of parsley or some garlic shredded and sautéed in olive oil before being added to my condensed tomato sauce.

Sometimes when I was looking for some food value I would add a can of oil preserved tuna chinks to the tomato paste and let that simmer before adding it to the pasta. This was part of the versatility that I had learned when being a medical student in a country where people wanted to keep the quality of their foods and did not want to sacrifice their traditions. I even had the opportunity to savor other home made pasta recipe varieties from people who coming from different regions of Italy brought their tastes to the imperial capital; had the chance to sample a cream of mushroom sauce added to a plate of fettuccini. An opportunity to eat an appreciated plate of porcini added to pasta gave the dish an odd meaty flavor. People in the outline regions would harvest this rare mushroom for their salads and pastas. 

When living outside Rome on the south side I had the advantage of growing my own zucchini or eggplants and would boil and slice that into my tomato sauce base for another sauce variety with added vegetable value. Sometimes I would just as well slice them up and add them to a scrambled egg, which I added to simple mix of spaghettini bathed in olive oil and garlic. I did not know any of this when living in Montreal.
In short living abroad in Italy allowed me to experiment more with different ingredients to add to spaghetti or gnocchi sauce. They did not all have to be tomato based.