“What is Dante’s glory compared to spaghetti?” Prezzolini asked in 1954. “Nothing more than the fact that spaghetti has made its way into many American homes where Dante’s name is never spoken!”
At first glance, it’s no surprise to learn that, like many other Mediterranean peoples, the Italians had been making dough from water and summer wheat flour since the Roman Empire. The Romans used this dough to create a rectangular sheet they called lagana—what we now know as lasagna. For variety, they would sometimes cut the lagana into smaller strips of various sizes, which they baked with sauce.
The period that truly transformed pasta into the gastronomic staple it is today was the Middle Ages. During this time, pasta was shaped into new forms and thicknesses, cooked using novel methods, and—most importantly—began to be boiled in water rather than baked as it had been before.
Later on, creativity—attributed to the Arabs, who needed food that could be preserved in the desert—led to the drying and storing of pasta, a development that irreversibly changed its status. No longer a handmade, perishable item, pasta became an industrial product, easily marketable. Dried pasta appeared in Arabic recipe collections as early as the 9th century, and it’s no surprise that the first factories to produce dried pasta emerged in Sicily, an area heavily influenced by Arab civilization.
Fresh pasta, however, never lost its charm to dried pasta—it couldn’t possibly—continuing to be featured in an increasing number of recipes throughout the 12th century. For example, tortelli and granelli frequently graced the tables of Tuscany, especially during religious holidays. The 14th century brings us a surprising revelation. In a Neapolitan cookbook called Liber de Coquino, clear instructions are provided on how to prepare lasagna: after the dough is rolled out and cut into rectangles, it is boiled in salted water, sprinkled with grated cheese and various spices, and then—here’s the interesting part!—served with a wooden utensil meant to help diners handle the hot, slippery pasta while protecting their hands. In other words, Italians were already using forks as early as the 1300s.
However, while the rules for preparing pasta during the Middle Ages or Renaissance might seem familiar to us today, they differed in one key aspect: while today’s ideal method is to serve pasta al dente, back then, it was certainly boiled... a bit too long. According to the cookbooks of the time, pasta was cooked for around two hours. Despite this, the taste for overcooked pasta persisted for quite some time.
Another archaic pasta tradition, still seen in the culinary customs of Germanic peoples, is the practice of serving pasta alongside meat, as a side dish. In fact, these two serving methods highlight a distinction between social classes: pasta as a side dish was undoubtedly associated with the aristocracy, who could afford to eat meat, while simple pasta dishes were more common among the masses and the bourgeoisie.
Nonetheless, regardless of social class, pasta was always seasoned with grated cheese—most often parmesan—a characteristic that remains quintessentially Italian today. By the 1800s, for example, parmesan and cherry tomatoes had become the most common way to flavor pasta in Italy, while in Parisian kitchens, meat and sauce (ragù) were preferred.
The 18th century brought about the abolition of social class distinctions through industrialization, which enabled pasta to be produced at significantly lower costs and distributed on a large scale. Practically, every Italian could now afford to eat spaghetti or macaroni, and soon enough, Italians became known as macaronari.
Outside of Italy, at least, the stereotype of pasta took root in collective consciousness, a notion that persists to this day. By the late 18th century, for instance, Carlo Goldoni, while dining at a respectable lady’s home in Paris, surprised one of his fellow diners by rebuking their hostess with the bold remark: “You have an Italian at your table and serve him soup? Don’t you know Italians eat only macaroni, macaroni, and more macaroni?”
As cultural stereotypes spread, so did gastronomic knowledge and original recipes, fostering a rich exchange of ideas that contributed to the refinement of people’s tastes and the growth of culture.
In fact, today, many people (perhaps without knowing) enjoy a taste of The Divine Comedy alongside a plate of spaghetti.
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