October is Pasta Month! Join us as we celebrate Pasta Month with the North Dakota Wheat Commission. According to the Commission, this year's theme is "From Field of Wheat to Plates of Pasta."
North Dakota remains the largest durum-producing state in the country, with an average production of 40 million bushels, enough to produce 1.7 billion boxes of pasta! The state also boasts numerous processing facilities including Minot Milling (a division of Philadelphia Macaroni), Dakota Growers Pasta (8th Avenue Pasta) and the North Dakota Mill, in addition to some smaller facilities. While the bulk of the state’s durum production is processed in country, the U.S. exports about 20 million bushels of durum to countries such as Algeria, Italy, Morocco and Venezuela. Here at home, we definitely enjoy our plates of pasta, with the U.S. as a whole consuming almost 6 billion pounds of pasta each year!
To help celebrate Pasta Month, the Commission is partnering with statewide media to provide durum and pasta facts and trivia. Readers and listeners will have a chance to win a pasta prize package, so have your ears and eyes open! Sponsors for the prizes are: Dakota Growers Pasta, Philadelphia Macaroni, North Dakota Mill, and the U.S. Durum Growers Association.
For great pasta cooking tips and recipes, visit www.sharethepasta.org and for more information on pasta month, visit www.ndwheat.com