A jump in food prices has many Italians seeing red -- and it's not the marinara sauce.

With food prices spiking up to 20 percent in the past two months, consumer rights groups are calling for Italians to stay out of the markets Thursday. At the very least, they want people to boycott pasta, which has been picked as the symbol of the food-price protest, ANSA reported Monday.

As part of their protest, the associations will give away pasta, bread and milk in the main squares of Italian cities, including the piazza in front of Parliament in Rome.

"We want the government to proclaim a price emergency and intervene immediately with measures to bring down prices by 5 percent," said Carlo Rienzi, the head of Codacons.