The History of Pasta
This is a really fascinating history of pasta, going way back to at least the 10th century Middle East. Long, but a really good read. Time for dinner as well.
This is a really fascinating history of pasta, going way back to at least the 10th century Middle East. Long, but a really good read. Time for dinner as well.
efgoldman:
February 10th, 2013 at 7:31 pm
I didn’t read in far enough to see if they included the pasta harvest.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27ugSKW4-QQ
Dr.KennethNoisewater:
February 10th, 2013 at 7:34 pm
I heard pasta started in China. I’m pretty sure that makes it communist.
DN:
February 10th, 2013 at 7:39 pm
Ok, article is fun.Wildly wrong Marco Polo reference means everything needs fact checking, Damn.
DN
The Dark Avenger:
February 10th, 2013 at 9:11 pm
Sometimes West meets the East with startling results.
sparks:
February 10th, 2013 at 10:42 pm
Yesterday I found a package of dried black chile peppers from Mexico where they neglected to translate the word black from Spanish to English. Granted, Asian packaging tends to have the most mindbendingly weird names.
calling all toasters:
February 10th, 2013 at 11:59 pm
Just spending your Sunday leafing through oil company house organs, huh? I think we’ve all been there.
max:
February 11th, 2013 at 12:16 am
This is a really fascinating history of pasta, going way back to at least the 10th century Middle East.
Well, actually, they went quite a bit farther than that, but this Saudi Aramco, so they went with the ‘the Arabs invented it’ view.
I could see a situation in which the Italians basically had fresh noodles, but then someone in the drier lands invented a hard-dried version of orzo using durum. (Which would be a damn useful thing to have if you’re trading by sea (or land, actually) between say, Egypt and points east. And a damned useful thing to invent if you have all this durum and you want to get rid of it or just save it.) Once that got back to Italy, it was off to the races.
Thanks for the link.
max
['I think this falls under unprovable thesis though.']
Vance Maverick:
February 11th, 2013 at 1:03 am
Farther than that? I’d be interested to know. The last time I read something on this (Harold McGee?), medieval Arabs were the furthest back people had traced it.
I’d be inclined to say pastasciutta might have been invented more than once — except that in this homeland of Yankee ingenuity, it had to be imported, by dangerously colorful and garlicky ethnics.
jon:
February 11th, 2013 at 10:52 am
Rather polemical and overreaching in the origin claims. No different really that what we see in excavations around Jerusalem.