This is Chef Roberta Adamo from Penne Restaurant and Wine Bar on the Penn campus. Roberta learned to make pasta at the "grandmothers' knee culinary school." She was lucky enough to have two grandmothers teaching her, as well as a Sicilian ex-mother-in-law. "When I come back in my next life, I want to be a Sicilian man. They have the life," Roberta says.

Making your own pasta is labor-intensive but low cost and you should've seen her rolling out the dough and hand-cutting little raviolis. Lots of people did see it. The room was so packed, people were lined up in the back and along the side, sort of like the winos who are lining up two across, 30 to 40 pairs deep, for the wine-tastings!

 Earlier, I caught part of a talk by Joe Lamp'l, author of "The Green Gardener's Guide: Simple, Significant Actions," and a popular TV garden-show host. Joe had a sobering - simple, significant - topic: why gardening is so important. You'd think people, especially now, would realize that. But Joe sees a sharp decline in the number of gardening magazines, as well as coverage by TV, radio and newspapers. (Fortunately for us and for me, the Inquirer is still hanging in there.) Big-box stores are co-opting the plant- buying business, independent garden centers are losing ground and the next generation doesn't have the connection with the garden that this and earlier generations had. As Richard Louv, author of "Last Child in the Woods," wrote, "Our children are the first generation to be raised without meaningful contact with the natural world." The ramifications of that are severe.

You'd think gardening would be a much hotter topic, given our desire for fresh food, locally and organically grown, our planet's climate dilemma and the economy. And, as Joe says, "now more than ever, we're stressed." Every gardener knows what we do helps our mental health, along with our sense of physical and emotional well-bring.

Now I'm so depressed, I think I need some of Roberta's pasta. Or a nice spring afternoon digging in the dirt. Ciao.