So far so good for the Dunedin-based manufacturers and wholesalers of traditional Italian products.
In Europe, eggs, chocolate and Italian food are being consumed in ever-increasing quantities as people hurt by the financial downturn look for comfort food to help them through the hard times.
Eggs are quick and relatively easy to prepare, chocolate is the cheap treat and Italian food - with its rich tomato or creamy sauces and the carbohydrates from the pasta - fills and warms consumers.
Ms Dawson described the company, which has been operating in Dunedin since 1987, as a niche producer of Italian pasta and products.
A recent trip to the Melbourne fine food fair, with the help of a Dunedin City Council economic development unit grant, proved to her and Mr Iannece they were not big enough to take on the two pasta giants of Australia.
Instead, they are looking to the North Island for expansion opportunities.
Pasta D'Oro supplies the hospitality and retail trade with fresh, dried and filled pasta, along with a range of pesto sauces and traditional slow-cooked tomato sauce.
What Ms Dawson has noticed in recent months is a marked increase in the sales of the prepared meals.
Customer requests for lasagne for the hospitality trade led the company to develop products for the retail trade.
The frozen meals, which included lasagne and macaroni cheese, had proven particularly popular in Queenstown and Wanaka but were growing in popularity in other South Island centres.
"We use home-style cooking. There are no fancy chemistry sets because we use products you have in your kitchen cupboard.
"Anybody could do it but we save them the time," Mr Iannece said.
Fresh ingredients, good flour and attention to detail made a good end product.
Pasta D'Oro employed 15 full-time equivalent staff and had just appointed an operatons manager to free up Ms Dawson and Mr Inannece for the development of markets and production of new lines.
They also intended attending more trade fairs as they expanded their range into the North Island.
Some of the new products came from customer demand but both watched overseas trends, particularly from Australia and Europe, and tried to introduce them at an early stage to New Zealand.
The potato gnocchi had been developed after repeated customer demand and the size of the operation meant it was possible to do quite small runs of a product, Ms Dawson said.
However, although they had no plans to leave Dunedin they continued to face problems familiar with many southern manufacturers.
Those problems included ongoing price rises for both raw materials and freight.
Since January 2008, some raw material prices had risen by 70%, most of which had been absorbed by the company.
"We don't want to shock our customers.
"All our ingredients have gone up in price at least twice in the last year," she said.
The other major cost increase had been freight.
For a long time, Pasta D'Oro could ship 100kg of pasta and products around the South Island relatively cheaply.
But to get the same sort of advantage now, loads had to be around 500kg and that was a lot of pasta, Ms Dawson said.
However, she and Mr Iannece remained committed to staying in Dunedin and decided that by diversifying and looking at supplying more retail products, they could continue to grow and prosper.
The company was coming to its traditionally quiet time of the year in supplying the hospitality trade.
"In June, people stay at home eating pumpkin soup, but by July they are sick of the soup and they start going out again."
New retail products would help take the edge off the quiet time in June, she said.
