EATING YOUR HISTORY: PASTA AND INTANGIBLE CULTURAL HISTORY

A Muse Bouche | Natalie Scola

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In 2003, UNESCO adopted the Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH), in an effort to protect global intangible heritage. The ICH includes oral histories, performing arts, social practices, traditional knowledge and craftsmanship. However, the ICH does not include the production and consumption of food, which is a key part of heritage. Cultural groups worldwide have varied practices relating to food. It is a central tenet of identity for individuals, communities, and entire countries. The production and consumption of food is a practice that forms community bonds while maintaining cultural practices.

The Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity does include a variety of food practices. This list contains elements of intangible cultural heritage in order to "help demonstrate the diversity of cultural heritage and raise awareness about its importance". The examples of food practices on this list are fascinating and show the variety of cultural food practices found around the world: Washoku, Japan (2013); Qvevri Wine-making, Georgia (2013), Neapolitan Pizzaiuolo, Italy (2017); Airag, Mongolia (2019).

One food practice not found on the list is pasta making. My family is Italian, and I have been around pasta my whole life, from preserving tomato sauce in the summer to rolling gnocchi by hand with my nonna (grandmother). Pasta making is a varied and unique practice that changes throughout Italy and the diaspora. 

Homemade garganelli pasta. I discuss how I made this pasta at the end of this article. Photo courtesy of Natalie Scola

There are so many varieties and methods of making pasta that it is impossible to know or even name them all. Recipes change from house to house and village to village. The mechanization of pasta in the 19th and 20th centuries changed pasta production and mass immigration contributed to loss of knowledge. Some pasta types are only made in a handful of villages or by a few people. For example, in Sardinia, the rarest pasta in the world is made only by three women. The pasta, called su filindeu in Sardo or fili di Dio in Italian (Threads of God), has been made for over 300 years by women in the same family. The women make dough of semolina, wheat, water and salt and create extremely thin pasta strands. The strands are criss crossed over a circular wooden frame and dried before being cooked in a broth of mutton. It is a beautiful, complex dish but will it still exist in 50 years? With decreasing populations in smaller villages and an aging population, knowledge of how to make regional pastas and sauces are quickly dying out.

A few years ago, I was amazed to discover a YouTube channel dedicated to recording regional and often disappearing pasta dishes. Pasta Grannies is a fascinating channel that records Italian nonnas making pasta at home. The channel features pasta from all over Italy, including Sicily and Sardinia. It is addicting to watch these old women – some in their 90s! – make pasta by hand. So many unique varieties have been recorded on video: Su succu; bauletti; code de pecora; strozzapretti; curzul; ndunderi; trofie and so many more. These videos are a way of preserving a dying art and creating a digital record for years to come. I highly recommend you watch them!

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A Many-Stranded History

Pasta is of course the quintessential Italian dish. But for a food that looms large in the popular imagination, it’s origin is maddeningly difficult to trace. Popular culture gives us the tale of Marco Polo bringing pasta to Italy from his travels to China but that is most likely a myth – records of pasta predate his 13th century journey. Pasta as a form of boiled dough has existed since Roman times. The first written record of pasta, or a pasta-like dish, is found in the Jerusalem Talmud from the 5th century CE. The author mentions itrium, a dish of boiled dough. By the 9th century, this word is recorded as itriyya, referring to string-like dough made from semolina that was dried prior to cooking. Pasta likely made its way to Italy through the cross-cultural Mediterranean trade. The Arab conquest of Sicily introduced many dishes and flavours that are still seen in Sicilian dishes today; pasta may have been one of the foodstuffs introduced. From Sicily, it likely spread up the peninsula. The Arab geographer al-Idrisi makes mention of pasta production in Sicily, where large quantities of pasta were produced and exported to mainland Italy and throughout the Mediterranean. Other Italian cities had strong trade connections throughout the Mediterranean, so pasta may have entered different areas of Italy at separate times.

However pasta was introduced, by the 13th century it was an established food. Pasta was not referred to as pasta, but instead called vermicelli, meaning a long, thin noodle — a word we still use today. Vermicelli was produced on a large scale and dried for long-term storage and trade. It was a common ingredient in most households and was eaten in broth or as part of gruel. Some recipes called for vermicelli to be cooked in almond milk, sugar and saffron, which is very different from how we think of pasta today.

14th century illustration from the medical treatise Tacuinum sanitatis (written by the physician Ibn Butlan in the 11th century). Pasta was thought to have medicinal properties and be good for the chest and throat. This illustration shows two women making pasta. One is kneading the dough and the other is laying long strands to dry on a frame. Source.  

While pasta-like dishes existed elsewhere in Europe, Italy developed a particular approach to pasta. There were a huge variety of pasta dishes but contemporary cooks did not categorize them as “pasta” dishes in the modern understanding as a category of cuisine. Pasta referred to a dough-based preparation made of flour mixed with other ingredients to form a paste. This paste could take on different flavours and forms, including cakes, tarts and shaped dough that were boiled or cooked in moist heat. These dishes were an ancestor of modern pasta. Pastasciutta were dishes of pasta served with sauce and pasta in brodo referred to pasta cooked in broth. Fresh pasta was made in the kitchens of the rich while common folk used dried pasta, which was a traded commodity throughout the Middle Ages. Areas like Apulia, Naples and Sardinia were main producers of durum wheat, a key flour for pasta production, and they exported pasta across Italy, to Spain and other areas throughout the Mediterranean and Europe.

By the 14th and 15th century, pasta is seen as a category of dishes on its own. Pasta varieties expanded and some familiar shapes developed: lasagne, tagliatelle, gnocchi, tortelli, and ravioli. Tortelli, a stuffed pasta, was considered a bite-sized cake, hence the name “little cake”. This is also where we get the modern-day name tortellini, which is a round, stuffed pasta. Tortelli would have been square and pan fried or cooked in broth. Bartolomeo Scappi, chef to Pope Pius V, recorded a recipe for torelli stuffed with capon as well as cow udders. The filling was scented with sugar and spices, which were common additives in savory Medieval and Renaissance dishes. While a filling like this is very different from what we are familiar with today, the idea of shaped pastas existing as a discrete genre of food emerged.

Bartolomeo Scappi's recipes for tortelletti with capon. The first lines of the recipe reads: "In a mortar grind the flesh of two capon breasts that have first been boiled with a pound of boneless beef marrow, three ounces of chicken fat, and three ounces of boiled veal udder..." There is an excellent English translation of Scappi's cookbook by the historian Terence Scully. Recipe source. Translation source. 

The commercialization of pasta was greatly helped with improvements to a machine called a brake. Brakes were used to knead pasta dough which could be very stiff and heavy when produced in large quantities. Kneading the dough by hand – or by feet! – was time consuming and strenuous. The brake mechanized this process and made it quicker to produce pasta. Brakes were used as far back as the Middle Ages but became adapted for pasta use by the 16th century. The development of the brake coincided with the development of manual extrusion presses to produce different pasta shapes. Shaping pasta was another laborious, hands-on part of pasta making. Naples was an important producer of wheat and the hot weather was ideal for drying the finished product. Pasta manufacturing was a mixture of mechanical process and artisanal skill. The machines needed workers to turn them by hand and some pasta shapes could not be made through an extruder; handmade shapes were often produced by women.

An image showing a baker's brake 17th century baker's brake. From Giovanni Branca's Le Machine (1629). Source.  

Industrialization in the 19th century brought steam and increased mechanization to pasta manufacturing. Machines automated almost all steps of the process, from kneading the dough to extruding shapes to drying. While machines were faster and more efficient than human workers, the mechanization of the industry throughout the 19th and early 20th century eliminated the knowledge of workers who had been making pasta for generations. Pasta factories, while industrial, were not massive companies, and towns often had multiple pasta producers; this shows how important pasta production was for the Italian economy. But throughout the 20th century, large companies expanded their operations, putting smaller pasta producers out of business. International companies also impacted Italian pasta export, with North America producing much of its own pasta by the 1920s, greatly reducing the need for Italian pasta exports.

Men carrying pasta, early 1900s. Source.

Pasta drying in Gargano, a town near Naples known for its pasta production. Source.

The popularity of pasta has spread through industrialization and immigration, cementing it as a national food. Artisanal pasta making is still a common practice today in many households across the country. However, the physical composition of pasta changes throughout Italy: in the North, egg-based pastas are more common but in the South, pasta is made mainly of flour and water. There is also a great variety of flours used, from the more common 00 flour ("doppio zero” or the finest grind of flour) to semolina or even flours made from chestnuts and chickpeas.

Pasta shapes themselves can be formed in many different ways, not just by cutting or filling. Pasta alla chitarra is produced using a wooden frame with wires stretched across. A sheet of pasta is placed over the frame and pressed with a rolling pin, cutting the pasta into long, thin strips resembling guitar strings, hence the name. Grooved boards are used to create ridges on gnocchi and cavatelli. A thin iron rod, called a ferrato, is used commonly in the South. A piece of pasta dough is wrapped around the rod and rolled, making a semi-closed tube, creating pasta shapes like carrati and filijie.

It is important to see the intangible heritage of pasta being preserved through projects like Pasta Grannies. How are cultural dishes are being remembered in other countries? Hopefully there will be more movements across the world to bring awareness to intangible heritage and the importance of preserving living culture.

Cuciniamo — Let's Cook! 

While researching this article, I was inspired to make one of these pastas and I settled on garganelli, a short tubular pasta made from egg dough originating from the Emilia-Romagna region. The defining feature of garganelli are its thin ridges which help to hold a heaty sauce – typically a ragù made from duck or lamb although other sauces can be used. The ridges are produced by rolling the thin squares of dough on a tool known as a pettine or comb. These are curious tools as they are historically made from the combs of weaving looms! The combs are typically made from hemp, bamboo and wood. These traditional tools are hard to find but modern ones can be made from solid wood. (In a pinch, a gnocchi board works well.) Follow along as I try my hand at making this wonderful pasta!

I started by making my egg dough. I used a mix of fine 00 flour and semolina rimacinata (a durum wheat flour). The eggs are placed in a well in the flour and beat, then small amounts of flour are incorporated until a loose dough is formed. The dough is then kneaded until smooth — about 10 minutes. It is definitely an arm workout! 

After the dough is made and left to rest, portions are passed through a pasta maker to make thin sheets. The dough is then cut into 1 1/4" squares. The squares are placed diagonally on the petinne to be rolled. I don't have an authentic petinne but my father made me one of wood and a matching dowel! 

The bottom point of the square is rolled around the wooden dowel. The dowel is then rolled forwards, pressing into the petinne to form ridges. This also seals the edges of the dough. 

And here we have garganelli! They resemble penne with their ridges but are different in that the sealed "flap" is visible. 

I didn't make ragù, the traditional sauce for garganelli (I don't think my family would enjoy duck ragù...) so I served it with pesto I made last summer using basil from my garden. The garganelli were a hit, there are no leftovers! I can't wait to try making another heritage pasta. 

Photos in this series courtesy of Natalie Scola

FINE DINING: CURIOUS FOODSTUFFS AT THE HISTORIC TABLE

 A Muse Bouche | Natalie Scola

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Every few months I turn to Pinterest for design inspiration as to how to make the dining room table look beautiful for events. Pinterest brings up pictures of complex floral centerpieces, show stopping gingerbread houses, and every manner of iced cake. That got me thinking about how people dressed their tables hundreds of years ago. 

Food, like fashion, indicates wealth and status. Historically, the divide between the haves and the have-nots was incredibly pronounced on the dining table though ingredients and presentation. As dining and dining customs became more formalized, the upper classes looked to dress their tables with unusual, rare and elaborate centerpieces to further display their wealth. 

The pineapple was one such item. Pineapples, which are now readily available at the grocery store, were once incredibly rare and expensive items. They had to be shipped over great distances to buyers. Growing them in non-native climates was labour intensive and costly. Once a pineapple was purchased, it became a display as a centerpiece, being used over and over until it eventually rotted.

Another item found on dining tables was an epergne (pronounced AY-pairn), a centerpiece made of small dishes connected by scrolled branches which held fruits, nuts and other sweetmeats and confections. In the 18th century, they were a costly item made from silver or other metals. Even as the style of dining changed in the 19th century, epergnes remained on the table as decorative pieces. Manufactures began to produce epergnes from glass and porcelain, which eventually made them available to a wider audience and brought them into middle class homes.

This epergne from the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, displays intricate silver metalwork as well as the characteristic bowls for fruit. Source.

Elaborate game pies were also used as showstopping edible centerpieces. While lower classes did eat meat, it was still seen as a luxury food reserved for the upper classes. People ate a wide variety of meat and poultry, including ham, beef, pork, venison, mutton, hare, ducks, pigeons, geese and partridge. A common way to eat meat was to cook it in a pie. One of the earliest English-language cookbooks, The Forme of Cury (cury from the Middle French cuire, meaning to cook), gives recipes for the making of pastries called coffins and chastelets. Coffin, or “coffyn” (meaning box) as it was in the late 14th century, were pastries made with straight sides, sealed at the top and bottom. Chastlets were much more dramatic, made in the shape of a castle, usually with each tower holding a different filling.

The page from The Forme of Cury giving the recipe for chastlets. The first lines read: "take and make a foyle (leaf) of good paste with a roller of a foot broad and longer by compass. Make four coffins of the self-paste upon the roller..." Source.

The 17th century saw more development in the art of pastry crusts. These are not be the same puff pastries we have today, but a type of hot water crust pastry made with a durable rye flour. This strong flour helped the pastry hold its form. Cooks developed pies with elaborate designs, mimicking patterns from textiles, heraldry and architecture. The pastry patterns were created by hand, either by rolling or tracing paper designs directly onto the pastry. Some were created by pressing the pastry into carved wooden boards. Later in the 18th century, earthenware and metal springform tins developed and became a common item by the 19th century.

A page from Edward Kidder's Receipts of Pastry and Cookery (c.1720) showing the intricate designs for two pies. Source. 

The fascination with novelty shapes extended beyond pies. Manufactures developed a whole range of novelty molds to be used for cakes, jellies and ice creams! Molds were made from copper and covered with tin; some had a special vent at the top to help release the food within.

While jellies are not as popular today, historically they were seen as food for the rich. Jellies begin to appear in the 14th century, but it was not until the end of the medieval period that cooks were able to perfect jelly making. Jellies were not just sweet dishes (like how we think of Jell-O today) but also for savory dishes, such as blancmange or aspic. Cooks originally obtained gelatin from boiling collagen-rich bones, such as calf’s feet. This was a time consuming process, and restricted the use of gelatin to the wealthy. In the 16th century, isinglass, a form of pure gelatin found in fish, was imported from Russia. Again, the cost of importing the ingredient was prohibitive. But by the 18th and 19th centuries, gelatin was mass produced, which fueled the Georgian and Victorian craze for molded jellies.

Aspic was an incredibly popular dish, appearing on tables in the late 18th century. These were clear, savory jellies which encased whole or sliced ingredients. Their elaborate molded shapes made them show-stopping centerpieces; some were intentionally designed to be inedible! Molds were made out of wood, pewter, ceramic or ceramic coated in copper or tin. The more elaborate molds – those with many details or pointed tops – were the most difficult to form correctly. Aspics were so popular that the famed French chef, Antonin Carême, developed a category of food he called “chaud froid”, which were hot dishes served cold.

Examples of the types of molds available for savory jellies. Source. 

Sweet jellies were also popular desserts and had their own range of flavour and molds. Blancmange, a dish made with almond milk, originated as a savory dish in medieval times and included shredded chicken or fish. By the 18th century, it was a sweet dish, with sugar, cream and rice and served in tall, decorative forms. Flummery, a softer pudding made with starch from flour, oats or almonds, and milk, was molded into elaborate and novelty shapes. In Elizabeth Raffald’s 1769 cookbook, The Experienced English Housekeeper, she provides a number of recipes for molding flummery, including: a nest of eggs, floating islands, stars, moons, and eggs and bacon. She declares these unique dishes: “pretty decoration for a grand table.” Raffald gives instructions on how to form shapes by using dishes and other pots, but by the 19th century, specialized molds made it easy to create interesting novelty flummeries for the table.

Elizabeth Raffald's recipe for Eggs and Bacon made from flummery. Source. 

A modern-day recreation of the eggs and bacon in flummery recipe. Source.

Ice cream was seen as a rare and expensive delicacy. It was difficult to produce because ice was hard to obtain and conserve year round. Ice could be stored in special ice houses, but only the rich could afford to maintain them and enjoy frozen dishes all year. “Ices” were a popular social treat throughout the Georgian era – Jane Austen’s novels make mention of eating ice – but it was not until the mid-19th century when ice and ice cream became affordable. Ice was imported from Norway and the United States, and inventors developed better churning machines, allowing the middle classes to produce ice cream at home. 

One manufacturer was Agnes Marshall, known as the “Queen of Ices.” Marshall developed her own ice cream empire, publishing cookbooks, running a cookery school, and manufacturing ice cream churners and novelty molds. Ice cream molds continued the trend of novelty ice cream shapes, which likely developed in Italy in the late 17th century before becoming popular throughout the rest of Europe. By the 19th century, novelty ice cream forms had taken the shape of fruits, vegetables and other foodstuffs.

 

Ice cream molds offered by Agnes Marshall in her cookbook The Book of Ices (1893)| Source

Marshall capitalized on this trend, offering an incredible array of mold shapes to choose from: pineapples, grapes, melons, wicker baskets, wheat, and birds. A common – if unusual – shape was a bundle of asparagus! Many of the flavours Marshall gives in her cookbook are familiar to us today, like pistachio, lemon and cherry. Others are foreign to our taste buds, like cucumber. She provides instructions to freeze fruit ice cream in the mold that matches it’s flavour: pineapple ice cream in the pineapple mold, peach ice cream in the peach mold. Marshall even produced her own line of food dyes to colour the ice cream realistically.

A surviving example of a three-part pewter asparagus mold. Source. 

A modern-day recreation of ice cream in the asparagus mold. Source.

The great diversity of edible and dramatic centerpieces would end by World War I, as modernist ideas began to change dining trends to be more minimal. Some trends, like jelly foods, had a revival in the 1950s; with refrigerators seen as a status symbol in the post-war economy, gelatin-based dishes once again were seen as an indicator of wealth.

It’s easy for us to be shocked when looking at historical, either in cookbooks or in modern-day recreations because the food, flavours and presentations seem so different from what we have today. Shocking food combinations live on in modern cookery, like bacon ice cream or the novelty foods served at the Canadian National Exhibition each summer. What is lost is the incredible skill and artist that went into producing these elaborate dishes and the molds that formed them. While cookbook authors live on in their publications, home cooks and kitchens staff are unnamed and unrecognized as the talent behind these unusual dishes.