/ Our magazine / Pasta: grains, types, the history of a myth.
/ Our magazine / Pasta: grains, types, the history of a myth.
Pasta is a product that has undoubtedly managed to export Italianità beyond borders, enhancing not only the gastronomic traditions and talents of the Bel Paese, but also a lifestyle that is, in every aspect, purely Italian. A fundamental element of the Mediterranean diet, it is the main food in the diet of Italians, who boast an annual per capita consumption of as much as 28 kilograms. Today, its consumption is also increasingly expanding abroad, especially in Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Austria. The United States, however, remains a privileged market for exports, but the real novelty is the new areas, such as Asia and the Arabian Peninsula, which have seen consumption grow at incredible percentages. In summary, data in hand, one in four pasta dishes worldwide is tricolor. Pasta is all of this and much more.
The history of pasta began when man abandoned the nomadic life and became sedentary, about 7,000 years ago, thus developing, with the new lifestyle, new skills that allowed him to learn to sow and harvest. Over time, he also began to learn how to better work the fruits of his hard work: wheat. The Greeks and Etruscans were already accustomed to producing and consuming the first types of pasta: in fact, the first trace of the existence of something similar to pasta dates back to the first millennium BC. In 1154, the Arab geographer Al-Idrin mentioned "a food made of flour in the shape of threads" called triyah, which was produced in Palermo and exported throughout the peninsula. It was then the Arabs of the desert, especially the Bedouin and Berber tribes, who first dried pasta to allow for longer preservation.
In the 1500s, masters of pasta production, now present throughout the Italian peninsula, began to gather in trade associations, thus giving rise to numerous pasta makers' corporations spread across the territory. However, until the 1700s, there was a great confusion: different types of pasta were all called maccheroni until the Neapolitans adopted the term, using it almost exclusively to refer to long extruded pasta. It is precisely near Naples, in Gragnano, that the ideal land was identified for pasta production, characterized by a ventilated, sunny climate with the necessary humidity to guarantee proper drying. The pasta indeed became a staple food only after the famine that struck the Kingdom of Naples in 1764. Gragnano pasta is a food product obtained by kneading durum wheat semolina and water from the local aquifer, a process that defines it as a product closely tied to the territory; in fact, as of October 2013, the designation "Pasta di Gragnano" has been recognized as a protected geographical indication (PGI).
Although the manufacturing process has changed significantly over the centuries, the product has remained essentially the same in its main ingredients: wheat and water. In short, the history of pasta dates back a long way.
Talking about wheat is extremely reductive. Wheat or frumento is a herbaceous plant of the Poaceae family and is a cereal that has been cultivated by humans for thousands of years. There are many
From the milling of soft wheat, depending on its extraction rate, that is, how much flour is obtained by grinding 100 kg of wheat, different types of flour can be obtained. The higher this index, the coarser the flour will be. Starting from the highest rate, five different types of flour can therefore be identified, in descending order: whole wheat flour, made with the whole grain and thus the most nutritionally complete; type 2 flour, made with a good part of bran and therefore still quite rich in proteins and fibers; type 1 flour, in which the quantity of bran gradually decreases, thus possessing fewer proteins; type 0 flour, that is, first choice white flour with few proteins; and finally, type 00 flour, the whitest and lightest, which is completely devoid of bran and therefore the poorest from a nutritional standpoint.
In Italy, both by tradition and especially by law, dry pasta must be produced exclusively with durum wheat, even though some exceptions are admitted that are however carefully and strictly regulated. From its milling, semolina is obtained, a type of flour characterized by a larger granulation and a particular amber yellow color. Moreover, depending on the type of milling, more types of flour can be obtained, among which the most common are semolina, already mentioned, that is, a coarse flour obtained from the first milling of durum wheat, and rimilled semolina or, more simply, durum wheat flour or semolina, obtained from the re-milling of the first and which thus possesses a finer granulation. However, the distinctions do not end here, as there are many other varieties of durum wheat that are more or less well known.
Let’s talk for example about the famous wheat khorasan Kamut (a trademark owned by the American company Kamut, founded in Montana, USA, in 1990 by Bob Quinn, a doctor in plant pathology and organic farmer), which is an ancient variety of modern durum wheat produced exclusively through organic farming. Kamut is considered one of the most nutritionally complete cereals and is also believed to be more digestible, perhaps precisely because, having never been hybridized, it has retained all its main characteristics unchanged.
There is also emmer, which is the oldest type of cultivated wheat, possessing, in addition to a high protein content, many fibers, vitamins, and minerals and very few fats.
Other varieties are durum wheat Matt and Senatore Cappelli. The first is a variety of durum wheat used to produce high-quality organic pasta, with a characteristic flavor that pairs perfectly with the more traditional flavors of our Bel Paese. The second is another variety obtained through genetic improvement by the geneticist Nazareno Strampelli (thanks to the agricultural renewal policies launched by Senator Raffaele Cappelli, after whom the wheat is named) in 1915, and it is still cultivated today, particularly in Southern Italy, especially in Puglia and Basilicata, and is used to produce superior quality organic pasta.
Furthermore, the market for gluten-free (gluten-free) products, made with alternative flours to produce pasta, baked goods, and food products in general, is increasingly significant. For the production of products suitable for the diet of people with celiac disease, who are now increasingly numerous, various flours are used, including corn flour, rice flour, various legume flours, including soy, beans, and broad beans, as well as various tuber flours such as, for example, potato or cassava.
Finally, it is important to add that fresh egg pasta represents a variant compared to the “classic” dry pasta because it can be produced by mixing soft wheat flour and eggs.
The shapes of pasta available on the market are numerous and among the most creative, often linked to recipes that belong to the local tradition for ages. However, some of the most famous and internationally recognized types can be identified.
What could be more Italian than spaghetti? These are a type of long and thin pasta with a round section; the thickness can vary and is indicated by different numbers depending on the producer. They also present a different appearance depending on the type of extrusion used, which can make their surface smooth or rough, affecting the choice of sauce to pair them with. There are many variations of spaghetti that go by different names: from the famous bucatini to bigoli, spaghetti alla chitarra, vermicelli, up to cappelletti and many more. One of the most traditional recipes in Italy, particularly in Rome, is undoubtedly that of spaghetti alla carbonara. It is prepared with humble ingredients that, when used together, manage to create an explosion of flavor that is simply incredible: egg yolk, salt, pepper, guanciale, and pecorino romano.
Fusilli are a type of short pasta of Campanian origin. In ancient times, they were produced by twisting a spaghetti strand around a knitting needle, and that is where their name derives from, namely from “fuso,” the tool used by spinners. For more than four centuries, the manual processing method of fusilli has never changed and has been passed down from generation to generation. Fusilli alla norma is a typical dish of Sicilian cuisine that embodies all the colors, scents, flavors, and traditions of the wonderful Sicilian land. This recipe can often also be found with other short pasta formats such as, for example, sedani. The ingredients needed to cook this dish are salted ricotta, eggplants, round tomatoes, basil, extra virgin olive oil, garlic, and salt.
Penne are a type of short pasta with a cylindrical shape. They can be smooth or ridged and of different lengths, which gives them different names; in fact, if they are shorter, they are called mezze penne. Another recipe from the Roman tradition is penne all’arrabbiata. Here again, the ingredients are simple, yet their flavors embody something magical that is likely linked to many Italians' memories: round tomatoes, chili pepper, garlic, parsley, extra virgin olive oil, and pecorino romano.
Paccheri are a type of short pasta of large dimensions originating from the Campania region. Their name derives from the ancient Greek “paskeir,” which means “with a full hand” in reference to their size but also to the sound they make when stirred in the pot, similar to the noise produced by a slap made with an open hand (in Neapolitan dialect, this term is indeed used precisely in reference to this type of slap). Let us remain in Campania and more specifically in Sorrento, in the wonderful Gulf of Naples, a symbol of the Italian lifestyle worldwide, to find a recipe suitable for this type of pasta, namely paccheri alla sorrentina. Here too, like nearly all traditional Italian dishes that boast centuries of history, the ingredients are very simple but rich in aromas and particular flavors. We need indeed tomato puree, oil, salt, pepper, garlic, bay leaves, mozzarella, parmesan, and basil.
Tagliatelle, also called fettuccine, are an egg pasta typical of Emilia Romagna, whose name derives from the verb “to cut” or “to slice,” in the case of fettuccine, precisely because they are obtained by rolling out the dough into a thin sheet and then cutting it to the correct width, which in this case is 7 mm. According to a Bolognese legend, tagliatelle were invented in the 15th century by the Bolognese master Zefirano, personal chef of Giovanni II Bentivoglio, on the occasion of his son Annibale II's wedding to Lucrezia d’Este. In reality, this is just a story invented by the Bolognese illustrator Augusto Majani in 1931. A curiosity: in 1972, the Brotherhood of Tortellino and the Italian Academy of Cuisine deposited the recipe and measurements of the real Bolognese tagliatella with the Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Handicrafts, and Agriculture of Bologna, establishing that it should have a width of 8 millimeters and a thickness ranging from six to eight tenths of a millimeter.
The most classic recipe, which is found almost prepared in all Italian homes, is tagliatelle al ragù. The ragù is a sauce made from tomatoes, extra virgin olive oil, various herbs, such as carrots, celery, and onion, and finally, the most important ingredient, minced meat, often beef but sometimes mixed with pork, cooked over low heat for many hours. Etymologically, the word comes from the French ragoût, a noun derived from the verb ragoûter, which literally means “to awaken the appetite.” During the fascist period, the regime implemented a strong nationalistic policy that, among other things, led to the attempt to Italianize all terms that were evidently non-Italian. The terms came from multiple categories, but one of the most affected sectors was precisely that of cooking: omelette became the wrapped frittata, soufflé the inflated dish, crêpes the sweet fritters, ragù the ragutto, then becoming ragù through the transcription of the phonemes that make up the original word in French, and many others.
Conchiglioni are a type of short pasta of large dimensions. They are designed to be prepared baked, in fact, there are numerous recipes that require their use, and they are often served stuffed. An example is conchiglioni stuffed alla parmigiana, a simple yet delicious dish that combines two evergreen elements of Italian cooking: pasta and parmigiana. Parmigiana is a dish made from fried and baked eggplants, tomato puree, garlic, cheese, which can be Sicilian pecorino, mozzarella, scamorza, or caciocavallo, and basil. It has been officially recognized and included in the “list of traditional Italian agri-food products” of the Ministry of Agricultural, Food and Forestry Policies.
In short, enjoy a nice plate of pasta!
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