Neapolitans eating pasta, on an engraving from 1900 • NAPOLI MANGIAMACCHERONI Macaroni, spaghetti, ravioli, tortellini… With such a variety, there is no doubt that pasta is the Italian dish par excellence:there are some 200 types of pasta of all shapes (squares, tubes, sticks, spirals…), which are in turn available in a myriad of recipes, which themselves vary according to the region. A typical scene returns in the films of the 1950s and 1960s:a Neapolitan family is gathered around a plate of spaghetti where everyone digs copiously, unless the guests simply plunge their hands into it. This Italian passion for pasta is the result of a long history, which only took a definitive turn in the 18 th century. The pasta is made from durum wheat (Triticum durum ), which differs from the soft wheat used in the preparation of ordinary bread. By grinding the grain, we obtain a flour, or semolina, which is then kneaded and modeled. Pasta is eaten once cooked in boiling water; dry pasta (the most common nowadays) can be kept for a long time, unlike fresh pasta, which is cooked shortly after making it. Coming from China or the Arab world? At present, the debate about the origin of pasta remains open. The idea that this food was imported from China by Marco Polo is only a legend resulting from a misinterpretation of a passage from Milione , in which a Venetian traveler alludes to a tree from which pasta was made. It is probably the sago palm, whose starch (sago) was confused with the pasta itself. There was also in ancient Rome a kind of pancake called laganum , from which the term lasagna derives, although they are actually two different dishes. It is more likely that the culture of durum wheat pasta developed in the medieval Islamic world. Perhaps it arrived from Persia, unless it spread through the kingdom of Al-Andalus. The Spanish word fideos (“vermicelli”) comes from the Arabic term fidaws; a similar word, fedelini , has also been used in the city of Genoa and its region since the 13 th century. It is to the Hispano-Muslim geographer al-Idrisi that we owe essential testimony to the spread of pasta in the Middle Ages. Indeed, he explains that in the middle of the twelfth th century, a Sicilian region had mills capable of producing large quantities of pasta. This type of pasta probably came from northern Africa, from where it was introduced to the continent by Sicily, which remained under Muslim rule from 827 to 1072. Anyway, the references to pasta dishes ( macaroni, ravioli, gnocchi, vermicelli...) multiplied in Italy from the 13 th century. Boccaccio and the mountain of parmesan cheese In the XIV th century, the Italian writer Boccaccio bears witness to the popularity of pasta by telling in the Décaméron the extravagant story of cooks perched on top of a parmesan mountain. They prepare macaroni and ravioli which they send down the slope to satisfy the gluttons. Around 1400, Franco Sacchetti evokes two friends meeting around a dish of macaroni. One of them absorbs with more appetite this pasta served on a common plate, as was customary:“Noddo began to gather the macaroni, roll them up and devour them. When the latter had already swallowed six mouthfuls, Giovanni still held his first fork in front of him and, seeing it so steaming, dared not put it in his mouth. » Until the beginning of the XVI th century, these pasta dishes differed from those of today. Their cooking time was longer, far from al dente pasta , and they were combined with ingredients considered surprising today, which combined the sweet and spicy flavors of different spices. Pasta was considered reserved for the wealthy and a dish of choice in the banquets of the Renaissance aristocracy. Bartolomeo Scappi, Pope's cook in the mid-16th century century, imagined for a banquet a dish consisting of boiled chicken accompanied by ravioli stuffed with a stuffing of boiled pork belly, breast of suckling lamb, roast pork, parmesan cheese, fresh cheese, sugar, herbs, spices and raisins. Well-cooked, spicy or even sweet, the pasta of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance had very different flavors from those of today's recipes. The recipe for Roman macaroni (maccheroni alla romanesca ), by the same Scappi, is even bolder. The dough, made from flour and crumbs mixed with goat's milk and egg yolk, was flattened and cut into thin strips using a sharp rolling pin (bussolo ) to shape the macaroni. These did not necessarily have a tube shape, since their name then covered various realities. After drying, the macaroni was boiled in water for half an hour, drained, then covered with butter, sugar, cinnamon and provatura , a local cheese made from buffalo milk. To finish, we put them in the oven for half an hour with a little rose water, so that the cheese melts and the macaroni soaks up the taste of the spices. It is not surprising that the author of the XVI th century Giulio Cesare Croce does not put macaroni on the list of dishes that make you gain weight! For beggars and kings A century later, this panorama had already changed, at least in Naples. Pasta had become a popular dish there, and even the staple food of the people, so much so that the Neapolitans received in the XVII th century the nickname of "eaters of macaroni" (mangiamaccheroni ), whereas they were called until the XVI e century of the "vegetable eaters" (mangiafoglia ). Several explanations have been put forward:the standard of living of the working classes fell, limiting access to meat, while the large cereal production areas of the Kingdom of Naples or that of Sicily offered fairly inexpensive wheat. Religious restrictions also had an influence:pasta was an ideal food for lean days, when it was forbidden to eat meat. However, it is likely that the consumption of pasta has become widespread as a result of the development of its industrial production thanks to machines such as the torchio , a mechanical press producing the traditional vermicelli, or vermicelli , which in the 19 th took century the name of spaghetti. Until the beginning of the 19th century, the tomato was considered too exotic by the Italians. Until it became an essential element in many sauces. In the city of Naples, pasta was associated with a social category, that of beggars or lazzaroni , which was said to eat only macaroni. “When a lazzarone earns four or five coins to eat macaroni, that day, he no longer cares about the next day and stops working,” said a traveler. Pasta nevertheless managed to conquer the taste buds of the privileged classes. The King of Naples, Ferdinand IV, devoured the macaroni with delight:"He took them with his fingers, bent them and stretched them, then carried them eagerly to his mouth, disdaining with great magnanimity the use of the knife, the fork or spoon…” What definitely changed, however, was the taste of pasta:sugar and spices were banned in favor of cheese and, from the 19 th century, of the tomato, imported from America. The Italians considered this ingredient too exotic for a long time. The first recipe to incorporate it, today the most typical, only dates from 1844:spaghetti with tomato sauce. Find out more Delizia! A culinary history of Italy, J. Dickie, Payot, 2010. A dish to lick your lips at During his stay in the Kingdom of Naples in 1787, the German poet Goethe noticed the great passion of the Neapolitans for pasta. “You can find them everywhere, he said, and cheaply. They are generally prepared simply, in clear water. Grated cheese is added to it, which serves as both a fat and a condiment. Goethe and his friends once visited Agrigento, Sicily, where they were lodged with a family who presented them with a plate of macaroni "of the finest and whitest dough possible." Their hosts explained that they were made from the finest grain, then molded by hand into small tubes with a snail-shaped imprint on them. “The pasta we tasted seemed exceptional to me, because of its whiteness and delicacy. »
