Romantics say all food is life. Correction: all food is politics. Once all food was loveable. Now the plate is cracked with controversy. Even pasta, pasta the mother food of Italy, is shadowed with doubt and fear. This time it isn’t coming from the likes of Marinetti, a futurist poet of the ‘30s, a Mussolini-ite, who declared “ “Pasta asciutta is anti-virile”, hoping to unleash the dogs of war. Marinetti’s fighting diet was drastic fusion - cooked salame immersed in a bath of hot black coffee flavoured with eau-de-cologne.

This time pasta is being threatened by biofuels! On September 13, almost half of the Italian population went on a pasta strike. Why? Because the price of pasta, the cheapest food in the country – and Italians eat 60 kilos of pasta a year - had risen 20% in the past year. The Italians don’t grow enough wheat to feed their passion and must import what they need. Now bad weather all over the world has jacked up wheat prices. Worse, farmers are planting less wheat and more corn to capitalize on the growing global demand for ethanol. Chew on this eaters. Food is now less important than the fuel for the SUV.

Well I’d better check on pasta supplies in Toronto which, with its large Italian population, must be especially sensitive to rising wheat prices.

So far so good. Everything’s normal at Zucca Trattoria, a warm homely storefront which exudes friendliness and offers a lowkey welcome. Zucca didn’t join the pasta ban. Wheat prices are going up here too, but pasta isn’t the survival food in Toronto as it is in Italy. It’s a designer food with prices to match.

Most Italians now eat dry pasta (pasta asciutta) as a matter of course.It’s cheaper and less time-consuming to make daily, and very good (Recommended brands are Barilla and De Cecco). I prefer dry pasta for the strandlike pastas such as spaghetti, linguine, even fettucine, I prefer its chewier consistency . But for the other hundred or so shapes I suspect fresh pasta does a better job in the urgent matter of making the sauce cling to shells, springs, ears, bows, hair, strings and quills, butterflies…. Anyway the question is moot because Zucca makes its own fresh pasta daily.

I thought I knew something about pasta. After all, like most North Americans I eat - or correction- did eat a lot of it before I realized that unless I was willing to become a marathon runner or atleast a daily walker, it would settle lethally on my hips. So I was surprised, delighted to be taught about pasta all over again at Zucca, a temple to the stuff and more besides. Tonight I’m eating Italian food as I’ve rarely appreciated it in the city.

The reason is that the chef Andrew Milne-Allan is a scholar-gastronome for whom authenticity is as important as taste. In fact, he took off the menu his utterly delicious smoked eggplant puree, a pale green pool of essence of eggplant, the consistency of cream, and with a subtly nutty flavour, because it wasn’t authentic. Just genius, I thought regretfully.

Ok, I’ll settle for the museum menu. The simple menu is adventurous, a challenge. There are six pasta dishes on the menu (they come in two sizes, appetizer and second course). I’ve never even heard of Casunsei Ampezzano which turns out to be an half-moon raviolo stuffed with beet and ricotta and accompanied by poppyseed butter sauce and smoked ricotta salata cheese. What’s that? Ricotta salata is a springy version of ricotta. It is with such delicate variations that food transcends the ordinary. This is a beautifully integrated dish with the pasta itself as the star.

Sheilagh who loves eggplant was not so pleased. She picked two crunchy fritters of eggplant adorned with currants, pinenuts , mint, pecorino cheese, a swirl of tomatoes and fresh tuma cheese. What’s tuma? It’s a firmer form of ricotta- how many kinds of ricotta are there? but before I can be admiring, Sheilagh cries “Where’s the eggplant?” It’s true. The fritters are too small to allow the eggplant to reveal its elusive flavour. I guess that’s why I so liked the roasted eggplant puree.

Next – a fish of course. Italians are maestri of the grilled fish. Zucca offers several fish filetted but I go for a fish on the bone. The choices are Branzino (sea bass) and Orato (sea bream). I pick the sea bream, a big fat fish with white chewy flesh - it is hard to define sea bream’s taste which is inextricable from its excellent consistency. It’s grilled perfectly crisp with lemon, olive oil and some fresh herbs. The waiter will debone it for you. Sheilagh’s roasted breast of moulard duck is a scarlet eyeful, the rare duck slices accompanied by beet and wheatberry risotto,roasted leeks, aged balsamic vinegar – the end slice of breast was a trifle tough, always a danger with rare duck.

So far this has been a pretty austere meal and all the better for it. I feel shrived of greed, I’ve eaten enough and no more. But now comes the shocker. Forget gelati, the Italian staple. Don’t even think of a fresh delicious peach. Instead this blowsy hazelnut meringue stuffed with cream, chocolate mousse, dripping with espresso sauce and chocolate shavings! It’s matched by a millefoglia of chocolate, ricotta, pistachios, wildflower honey and a peach and vanilla sauce.

Brilliant showmanship. Mr. Milne-Allan isn’t just a curator and an excellent chef but he has the instincts of a Barnum and knows just how to bring the evening to a climax.

***Zucca Trattoria, 2150 Yonge St. 416-488-5774 Food plus tax $114,