A (decent) pasta plate

In the time I've been here, I've been looking for an Italian restaurant that prepares a good pasta plate. I had a couple of disappointments in local Italian restaurants. I don't know why but for some unknown reason the local Italian restaurants are owned and run by Latin people and I excuse me for, maybe, being racist (and I apologize if I am): What the heck do they know about Italian cooking? Nothing! And the food produced in the restaurants I visited was an example of that (there was 1 exception last week where the food was very good, but I didn't eat pasta there). I've developed a test to see whether a restaurant is a good Italian restaurant. It's called the carbonara test. I simply order a plate of pasta with Carbonara sauce (includes meat, so it isn't kosher and unsuitable for vegetarians). According to the taste of that plate I decide whether the chef knows what it means to make a good pasta plate. Today I had to run some errands, after I finished them this morning I decided to start looking for a place of my own. So even though it was a beautiful day outside, and I was offered outdoor activity, I stayed in and went through the classifieds looking for $HOME (yes, it's a geeky joke :-)). At a certain point I was hungry so instead of going out and grab junk food I decided to prepare myself a pasta plate. I admit I did some shortcuts (that are a disgrace to anyone claiming to be Italian like me): The pasta was Barilla and the sauce was bought too. 15 minutes after I started cooking I had a pasta pomodoro plate ready. After the first bite a smile of content took hold of my face and it grew as kept eating, enjoying it more than I could imagine I would enjoy a pasta plate. I made enough for 2 people. My friend walked in just as I was about to start eating, I offered him a plate, but he refused. His loss/my gain. I ate everything and I would have eaten more if there was more ready. I was feeling so good with myself that I even washed the dishes and cleaned the kitchen immediately after. From decision moment to finish time the whole thing took 30 minutes, but every second in those 30 minutes was bliss and heaven. I finally ate a good pasta plate that I was missing so much.
My second friend here announced that he will start bring food from home to work (diet, money and time saving are all good reasons to do so). I think I will join him and prepare pasta for myself a couple of times a week and bring it in, instead of going out for lunch.
In the time I've been here and have been disappointed from the local Italian restaurants I started day dreaming about opening a local Pasta Mia here. Maybe it's not a bad idea after all :-) As anything in the world: Time will tell....
BTW: If you think that I'm problematic and picky about eating pasta. You're right on the money. What can I say I was spoiled at a young age and even though a pasta plate is a simple dish it isn't as easy to prepare a good one.

Hasta Maniana