2024 Author: Jasmine Walkman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 08:29
We all like to eat pasta, don't we? But I've always wondered, as I suppose you do, where this culinary miracle came from and who invented it. The purpose of this article is to show just that.
The paste appeared so long ago that it is almost impossible to determine the exact year. In the 10,000 years that wheat has been processed, there is no way at least one person could not have come up with the idea of drying the dough that was obtained by mixing water and flour.
Historians point to three threads in the development of pasta: the Etruscan, Arab, and Chinese civilizations. In the Egyptian tombs, which were made in the IV century BC, murals of people who make noodles were found and this noodle served them as a way to the world of the dead.
The bas-reliefs of an Etruscan tomb depict utensils for making pasta. Most likely, after the Romans conquered the Etruscan cities, they mastered not only the seven-day week, the fighting, but also making pasta. Ancient Rome was one of the first cities in the world with a population of over one million people.
One of the main problems of the city government was feeding and supplying the city with provisions. The difficulties did not come exactly with the delivery of food, but with how to preserve it for a longer time. At that time, even the grain did not last long. The most common practice with wheat was either to distribute it to the people or to sell it at a symbolic price.
With it, people made bread with yeast, but it was also not very durable. And then came the idea to boil the flour and make breadcrumbs from it, which lasted longer than bread. At a later stage, breadcrumbs found application in soups and legumes. At the same time, wealthy citizens allowed themselves to make egg paste, which was prepared with meat, fish or vegetables.
In the cookbook of a man named Apicius, several recipes with pasta are mentioned: a dish similar to lasagna with fish.
China and Japan also have a long tradition in making pasta. The latter still offer long spaghetti to their guests on New Year's Eve, called toshi-koshi (from Japanese it means passing from year to year).
The first source to mention that pasta is made by cooking is the Jerusalem Talmud, written in army in the 5th century. The word by which this dish is called is itryah. In Arabic texts, the word was used for dried spaghetti sold by peddlers. The Arabs also made fresh pasta, but both now and then the Arabs consumed it immediately after making it.
In the Middle Ages, the pasta spread to the island of Sicily, which at that time was an Arab colony. The need to dry pasta, which was eaten raw in the southern part of the Apennine Peninsula, came from the development of trade and maritime transport. Dried pasta was filling enough on long trips. Amalfi sailors, who traveled frequently to Sicily, quickly learned how to dry pasta, and soon the entire Gulf of Naples was covered with dried spaghetti.
From the 16th century, associations for pasta producers with strict rules were established throughout Italy. In Liguria the masters were called Maestri fidelari, Lazanari - in Florence, Vermicellari - in Naples, Artigani della Pasta - in Palermo.
The first recipe for lasagna was mentioned in the 15th century. In the same century, a book by Father Bartolomeo, a librarian at the Vatican, was published, entitled On Real Pleasures and Prosperity, which mentioned the main types of pasta.
Until the 17th century, pasta was expensive and difficult to obtain, because the special variety of wheat with which it was made had to be imported, and manual or rather foot processing cost a lot of money. As I mentioned in one of the pizza articles, the dough is kneaded with the feet, the same goes for the pasta dough.
After the appearance of machines for the production of all kinds of pasta, the crops of the special variety of wheat from which they were made increased. Also at this point, the four-toothed fork appeared, making it possible to permanently place the pasta on the table of every Italian citizen.
At that time there was an economic crisis, and pasta was quite cheap, so people cooked it more often in their homes. In 1770, the word pasta in English meant something perfect and refined. The first pasta machine made in America was built by Thomas Jefferson after his return from Europe.
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