My sister in law is Italian (we grew up in NY) and her family was from the Milan area and rarely eat things like pastas. There is a local Italian restaurant called Matimma's and the owner told me that he has very little pasta on his menu because he feels that is cheap food. He makes delicious Italian specialties with the base being beef, chicken and fish. Don't know if this will help you but thought it was worth a try to act like you are eating and cooking like they do in "blah blah" part of Italy