2 hours ago, weinoo said:
I'm pretty sure that in Italy they've been using the pasta water, in certain sauces, for a long time. And I don't recall ever seeing a plate of pasta with sauce dumped on top when dining in Italy; the pasta is always mixed with the sauce before plating.
I certainly do recall from the 1960s/1970s. But I admit my recall of that time period may be fuzzy. I have a memory of spaghetti with sauce on top and the waiter putting the parmisian on top with a heavy hand and a flourish.
I think people tend to go quickly from "what we do now" to "this is how we have always done it" ymmv
eta: and I wasn't necessarily referring only to what they do in Italy, but old style, what my parents always did. I actually often like having a bit of variety between forkfulls of past with sauce and forkfuls without for some dishes. I'm probably in the minority on that one.
