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The beginning of pasta
date back to times of yore.
The first hint we have of
pasta comes from the tools used for making and cooking pasta found in an
Etruscan tomb. Shortly after the birth of Christ, a chef named Apicius
mentions something which sounds a lot like lasagna in his book of recipes.
Around the year 1000, we have the first documented recipe for pasta in the
book "De arte Coquinaria per vermicelli e macaroni siciliani", (The Art of
Cooking Sicilian macaroni and Vermicelli) written by Martino Corno, chef to
the powerful Patriarch of Aquileia. Pasta was certainly well known in Arab
countries, where still today they speak of "makkaroni". From these countries
it spread to Greece and Sicily (then an Arab colony). In fact, Palermo was
the first historical capital of pasta, because it is here that we have the
first historical sources referring to the production of dried pasta in what
seems like a small-scale industrial enterprise. In 1150, Arab geographer Al-Idrisi
reports that at Trabia, about 30 km. from Palermo, "they produce an
abundance of pasta in the shape of strings ("tria" in Arabic) which are
exported everywhere, in Calabria and in many Muslim and Christian countries,
even by ship."
1279... "a basket
of macaroni"
The first "official"
mention of pasta: a notary's inventory of an inheritance speaks of "a
bariscela (basket) full of macaronis." A document from 1244 and another from
1316 testify to the production of dried pasta in Liguria as well. Between
1400 and 1500, the production by craftsmen of "fidei" (pasta in the local
dialect) became quite widespread in Liguria, as demonstrated by the founding
of the Corporation of Pasta-Makers in 1574 in Genoa. Three years later, the
"Regolazione dell'Arte dei Maestri Fidelari" (Rules for the Pasta-Masters'
Art Corporation) were drawn up in Savona.
The 17th century: a
mechanical press
In Naples, population
growth was aggravating the problems of food accessibility, until a small
technological revolution (the spread of the kneading machine and the
invention of the mechanical press) made it possible to produce pasta at a
much lower price. Pasta thus became the food of the people. Naples's
vicinity to the sea (as was the case of Liguria and Sicily) facilitated
drying, a process which allowed pasta to be conserved for an extended period
of time.
The 18th century:
how was pasta made?
In Naples, pasta was
made by mixing semolina dough by foot. The pasta maker sat on a long bench
and used his feet to mix and knead the dough. The king of Naples, Ferdinando
II, was not happy with this method of pasta-making and hired a famous
engineer (Cesare Spadaccini) to improve the procedure. The new system
consisted of adding boiling water to freshly-ground flour, and kneading by
foot was replaced by a machine made of bronze that perfectly imitated the
work done by man. In 1740, the city of Venice issued Paolo Adami a license
to open the first pasta factory. The machinery was simple enough. It
consisted of an iron press, powered by several young boys. In 1763, the Duke
of Parma, Don Ferdinando of Bourbon, gave Stefano Lucciardi of Sarzana the
right to a 10 year-monopoly for the production of dried pasta -
"Genoa-style" - in the city of Parma.
1830: tomatoes are
here!
At the start of the
1800's, pasta met tomato. Until then, it had been eaten without seasoning or
with cheese. The first mention of using tomato dated back to the 17th
century. It was imported into Spain by the conquistadors of the New World,
and later spread throughout Europe, finding an ideal climate for cultivation
in the Mediterranean countries. But tomato didn't become a common ingredient
in Italian cooking until the end of the 1800's. At first, the tomato was
considered an ornamental plant, and according to a legend that took some
time to die off, actually poisonous! It wasn't until 1778 that Vincenzo
Corrado in his "Cuoco galante" (The Gentlemen's Chef) mentioned a tomato
sauce, but without the idea yet of using it to season pasta. In any case,
Italy deserves all the credit for "launching" the tomato. Tomato sauce,
boiled in a pot with a pinch of salt and a few basil leaves, was used
beginning in the early 1800's by open-air vendors in the south for seasoning
macaroni. And pizza - which dates back to the cradle of human civilization -
began to be seasoned with tomato sauce and mozzarella only in the mid 19th
century.
1840: Naples
capital of pasta
Several pasta makers
from Amalfi opened a true industry of pasta at Torre Anunziata. It used
water mills and grinding stones, and the semolina was separated from the
bran using hand-held sieves. Machines brought with them market development,
competition and exportation across the ocean. In 1878, a machine destined to
incomparably improve semolina - and therefore pasta - was introduced: the
Marseillais purifier, invented at Marseilles. The perforated leather which
had been used in manual sieves was applied to mechanical shakers. The first
hydraulic press was made in 1882 and the first steam-powered mill was used
in 1884.
The 19th century:
new shapes abound
Die makers, capable of
crafting absolutely perfect holes in the bronze disk that closed the pasta
press, realized that they could shake up the market by changing the dies and
inventing new, imaginative shapes. How many types of pasta could you get
back then? A pasta factory offered an assortment that ranged from 150 to 200
different shapes.
1904-1914: The
decade of technology
Artificial drying in
air-conditioned environments made pasta available in all the regions of
Italy, and people began to refer to the pasta industry. The wheat most
beloved by pasta makers was the Taganrog variety, the unsurpassed durum
wheat imported from Russia. The port of Taganrog, in Crimea, shipped off the
wheat that the Ligurian and Neapolitan pasta-makers preferred. Actually,
they couldn't do without it. An old brochure for a Ligurian pasta factory -
at a time in which half of its production was destined for the state of New
York alone - talks about "Pasta of Taganrog."
I love pasta!
The great development
of Italian pasta at the turn of the century was also tied to exportation,
which in 1913 touched a record high of 70,000 tons, most of which was
directed towards the United States. Later, importing countries began to
produce at home, and Italian-built pasta-making machinery soon conquered the
world. In 1917, Fereol Sandragne patented the first system for continuous
pasta production. Meanwhile, the Bolshevik revolution had cut off
exportation of Russian wheat: in Russia, the land had been taken over by the
State and the peasant was obliged "to turn his entire production of wheat
over to the state, after having detracted only the quantity necessary for
sowing and for his family's consumption."
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