Each Italian consumes an average of 23 kilograms of pasta per year. More than one in two Italians (54%) eats it daily, with 7 out of 10 Italians in the Centre-South and 4 out of 10 in the North. Italians are also the world's leading producers, followed by Turkey and the United States. The leading position is confirmed by the Italian Food Union's data from 2024. Production value (over 4 million tons) reached €4.3 billion (up from €4.1 billion in 2023), with exports increasing by 4.8% to €4 billion. Italian creativity is evident in pasta’s 500+ shapes and names inspired by the human body (linguine, orecchiette), animals (lumache, farfalle, conchiglie), the sky (lune, stelle, stelline), even embracing cheeky local sexual references. The Italian Food Union also conducted a survey of regional recipes. There are almost 200, with Emilia-Romagna coming in first (12 typical localities), followed by Piedmont, Tuscany, and Campania, each with 11 recipes. In a league of its own is carbonara from Lazio, the most famous—and most imitated—pasta dish worldwide, so much so that it is celebrated globally on Carbonara Day this Sunday, April 6.