Three Packages Made Dinner

With three packages, a not bad dinner was put together in 30 minutes.

Now let's imagine how long such a dinner would have taken an Italian to put together from scratch 50 years ago and ponder whether these conveniences are an improvement or regression for the human race. 

I opened a plastic package of gnocchi and boiled them for 3 minutes.

An Italian would have hung out for hours with family and neighbours, rolling hundreds of those from scratch, listening to music, gossiping and visiting while the kitchen smelled of fresh boiled flour and potatoes.

While one hopes the imported Italian mozzarella is still made as it was 50 years ago, the tomato sauce was ready in 30 seconds.

An Italian would have made sauce from fresh garden tomatoes and herbs, simmering for 3 hours. No way that sauce would have had 26% of our daily sodium requirement.

The baked gnocchi in tomato sauce and cheese smelled and tasted fine. But I am sure the freshness of this dish 50 years ago would have made a big difference to the taste. Not to mention me serving 10% of the amount of food served at an extended family dinner 50 years ago.

At least I have a 50 years old fireplace to socialize around its warmth at night instead of looking at a large screen TV.