If you love cycling and you haven’t seen the 1979 movie Breaking Away, you should try to find a copy. It’s a quirky coming-of-age tale about a young man in Bloomington, Indiana, with a passion for bicycle racing—and for all things Italian—but very little idea what he wants to do with his life . His father, a stone-cutter turned used-car salesman, is understandably bewildered by his son’s continental enthusiasms, however, and he’s more than a little put out by his rudderless drift into the the shoal waters of adult life. This smoldering impatience flares up when, at the end of a hard day flogging clapped-our cars to credulous college students, Dad returns home to find that his wife is serving zucchini for supper. That’s the last straw. It’s bad enough having a son hanging about the house who shaves his legs and sings off-key snatches of Italian opera, but zucchini? Is that a proper meal for a hard-working used-car salesman? No way! “It’s all those ini foods!” he rages. “Zucchini, linguini, fettucini… I want American food. Gimme French fries!”

Well, I like French fries, too, but I eat “ini” foods far more often. Several times a week, in fact. Particularly if the ini food in question is pasta. I love pasta. In fact, I wouldn’t think of leaving home without it. It’s perfect trekking fare, suited to trips of any length, from weekend adventures to season‑long expeditions. Pasta has everything I look for in a camp staple. It’s a snap to prepare, incredibly versatile, and an ideal source of easy‑to‑assimilate carbohydrates. It’s also tasty and filling. And it travels well. So it’s no surprise that pasta has a permanent place on my cyclotouring, paddling, and backpacking menu.

I’m always on the lookout for new ways to use pasta, and, sure enough, on a recent visit to the local HyperMart I happened on a product that seemed tailor‑made for people on the go—tortellini…Read more…

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