Where Did Pasta Come From?
When we think of pasta, our minds immediately go to the rural countryside of Italy. Piles of durum wheat flour being mixed and kneaded with eggs or water to make one of the most versatile staples around the world. Narrowing down the origin of pasta is very tricky. Mainly because, when we translate the word, it is paste in Italian. The definition of the translation is a dough made from a combination of flour and water or eggs, which are the same ingredients for a lot of other dough-based food items around the world. This makes it very hard to differentiate pasta from other ancient dishes that use the same ingredients. Also, pasta is so commonly used by everyone that it receives little attention in terms of historical origin. A belief on how pasta originated in Italy comes from the story of when Marco Polo returned from his travels to China in the 13th century. In his book, "The Travels of Marco Polo", he mentions the Chinese using a plant that produces flour to create a meal similar to barley flour. His description of this barley flour meal resembles several pasta-like dishes we eat almost every week, one in particular called lagana (believed to be a type of lasagna in China). The original text from Polo's book is lost, so a lot of the information comes from various authors and experts who studied his travels in detail. Since pasta was already gaining popularity in Italy during the 13th century, it is very unlikely that Marc Polo was the first to introduce it.
Some more likely answers as to where and when pasta originated point towards noodles that were made in Asia as early as 3000 B.C. It is believed that this noodle-like recipe was brought westward by nomadic Arabs. Once it reached the Mediterranean in Europe, the recipe and process for making pasta was refined. Durum wheat became the common ingredient because of its high gluten content and long self life. As time pasted, pasta became more affordable, its shelf life improved, and it was rooted into Italian culture. The advantage Italy and other Mediterranean countries is that its climate is well suited to grow a variety of fresh vegetables and herbs, allowing Italians to make creative and delicious pasta sauces. Tomatoes are the most popular vegetable choice for sauces - I mean who doesn't like a nice, hot bowl of spaghetti and tomato basil sauce :P
I am going to skip ahead with some of the history of pasta, just to fast forward us to the introduction of pasta to North America. It is believed that early Spanish settlers (was not expecting the Spanish to be the people responsible for introducing pasta to America) brought pasta to America after the new world was discovered. However, it was not until Thomas Jefferson became the third president of the United States and returned from his trip to Paris in 1789, that pasta slowly started to become industrialized. Thomas introduced pasta to the American people, and by 1848, the first industrial pasta factory was built in America by a Frenchman in Brooklyn who dried his spaghetti by spreading them over his roof (I googled to find the photo, but unfortunately had no luck :/ ). In America, a lot of dried pasta are still imported from Italy, which is usually made from semolina flour or purified durum wheat. Semolina flour is the ingredient that makes pasta so dry, since it is very unabsorbant. It does however, allow pasta to have a long shelf life, unlike fresh pasta that usually needs to be consumed within 2-3 days.
Crash Course on Making Fresh Pasta
Recently, I have been learning how to make pasta from scratch. If you have read any of my past blogs talking about food, you know that I look to cook in my spare time. When I started reading how to make pasta from scratch, I immediately attempted a batch. I don't own a pasta roller so I had to do it the old fashion way, with a rolling pin (great arm and upper body workout!).
If you are interested, I have summarized the steps on how to make fresh pasta:
Create a mound of flour (I use plain white flour) on a clean and dry kitchen counter top and make a well in the center. You will be putting your eggs in this well so make sure it is wide and deep enough to hold at least 2 eggs.
Crack two eggs into the well and carefully and slowly beat the eggs.
As you beat the eggs, gently brush flour at the edge of the well into the eggs. You will slowly notice the eggs thickening and feel more resistance while beating the eggs.
Once you feel a strong resistance trying to beat the eggs (or you can no longer beaten them), fold the remaining flour into the eggs until a dough begins to form.
You don't have to use all of the flour! Only use enough to make a dough that is soft but not too firm. Make sure to not add too much flour! Nothing worse than dry pasta dough!
Once you form the dough, knead it for 10 minutes straight. You want to develop gluten in your pasta so the kneading is important (let's get that arm workout started!).
After 10 minutes of kneading, tightly wrap your dough in cling-film or wax paper (make sure it is tight enough to remove any air. Air is a fresh pasta dough's worse friend - makes it dry). Leave the dough for at least 30 minutes or overnight in the fridge.
The resting step is important. You want the gluten to relax before you begin rolling your dough.
Once your dough has rested, lightly flour a clean surface, a rolling pin, and the dough.
Use the rolling pin to start rolling out your dough. Before you roll the entire dough, fold the dough onto itself into thirds. Turn it over and roll it out again. Repeat this step three times. This will help add structure to your pasta.
Roll out your dough into a large rectangle. You want the dough to be as thick as a Canadian loonie (~1 mm).
Once the dough is rolled out, cut it into whatever pasta style you desire (you will want to find online recipes that explain how to cut out different pastas).
Now the directions I have mentioned above are a compressed version of what I have learned from YouTube videos and recipes online. If you are interested, I have linked a few videos on how to make fresh pasta and how to appropriately cook pasta and eat it with different sauces.
My first attempt making linguine ended up with a pasta that tasted like pasta but had the texture of Odong noodles...I am not kidding when I say you had to put the muscle into rolling your pasta dough!
If you guys enjoyed this post, I can write a follow-up one talking about some of the most popular pastas used in most kitchens. From spaghetti to macaroni :)