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FOOD HISTORIES: Noodles- Western History

TD

Took this photo of the Macaroni and Cheese at Bosscat Kitchen and Libations … In the late 1800s, throughout some of Europe and North America, “macaroni” was a broad term for any kind of pasta!

Dear Foodie Fam,

It’s National Noodle Month!

The Chinese, Italians and Arabs all claim to have created the noodle! As I wrote in my first noodle blog post, hard evidence indicates China invented it but the details of how noodles entered the Western world from China are slippery!

READ ON TO LEARN SOME WESTERN NOODLE HISTORY!

Noodles in the Talmud: Against the Law?

As I wrote earlier, China has the most physical evidence to claim in the war over noodles but the history of how noodles came from China to Europe is muddy. The common theory is that nomadic Arabs were a vehicle for noodles to come to the West.

In the 5th century, Arabs first recorded use of dry pasta for long journeys. In the 16th century, an Arab geographer was sent by the King of Sicily to travel and write around Europe. In his records, he mentions “itriyah", a boiled noodle.

Jen Lin-Liu who wrote  On the Noodle Road: From Beijing to Rome, with Love and Pasta traces itriyah to the Jerusalem Talmud!

If you’re not familiar with the Talmud, it’s the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law and Jewish theology. It dates back to the fifth century AD. It’s here that -like many other topics- the boiled noodle is brought into question! Here, the classification of the itriyah -boiled dough- as unleavened bread is seen through the eyes of Jewish law. (Today only noodles made of matzoh meal are kosher for Passover.) 

So, it’s not really known whether the Arabic noodle came before the Talmud’s noodle or vice versa! What we do know is they both derived from the Greek itrion (a flatbread “little cake” used in religious ceremonies).

Pasta: Italy’s Pride and Joy

14th-century Italian miniature showing women kneading dough and hanging cut strips of vermicelli. SOURCE: TACUINUM SANITATIS IN MEDICINA, AUSTRIAN NATIONAL LIBRARY, VIENNA

Pasta (the noodle) is a staple in Italy. You can get it dried (pasta secca) and fresh (pasta fresca). I’ll have it both ways! There’s 310 forms known by over 1300 documented names... and I wish I could try them all!

Italians -including the owner of The Museum of the History of Spaghetti (yep, that’s a thing)- cite an Etruscan tomb dating to the fourth century BC to prove that Italy created the noodle. It’s reliefs illustrate what looks like a pasta board, a flour sack and a pasta-shaping pin… Well, not many people buy this origin story…

I’m just glad pasta came to Italy in the first place, but how did it get there? Today, the children’s tale that Marco Pollo brought noodles to Italy is null. The 8th century Arabic invasions or the Mediterranean trade in the Middle Ages are more logical explanations for the noodle’s Italian debut. Whatever the case, evidence says that pasta -then, cooked for longer periods of time and eaten in sweet, spicy and savory combinations- inhabited Italy by the 13th century.

By the 13th century, poet Franco Sacchetti writes about two friends that eat from the same pasta dish (although one is clearly hungrier)… is that about me and Dutch?

In the 14th century The Decameron, writer Boccaccio weaves a fantasy about pasta chefs rolling macaroni and ravioli down a Parmesan mountain to lucky gluttons below… is this my fantasy?

Pasta was the Italian noodle. It means “paste” in Italian and refers to it’s unleavened dough comprised of durum wheat, water and egg. Durum wheat is what made Italian pasta different than other noodles. It made pasta easy to store. Durum wheat was best raised and dried in the climates of Naples’ regions, so that’s exactly where the pasta market flourished. By the late 17th century, pasta in many forms entered the staple diet for both the rich and the poor of Naples.

Between 1700 and 1785, the number of pasta shops in Naples shot up from 60 to 280! Aristocratic tourists stopped by these shops and reveled in them! The Englishmen who returned home from time in Italy were called “macaroni” because of their love for Italian pasta. Italian pasta was set to seduce the Western world.

Drying in the streets of Naples. 1895
SOURCE: UNKNOWN- PLEASE LET ME KNOW IN THE COMMENTS! THANK YOU!!

Drying pasta, beginning of the 1900.
SOURCE: UNKNOWN- PLEASE LET ME KNOW IN THE COMMENTS! THANK YOU!!

Pasta in North America: Thomas Fucking Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson’s presidential portrait.
SOURCE: https://www.whitehousehistory.org/digital-library

Legit: the mould Jefferson designed for pasta making!

Much like the Englishmen/”macroni”s mentioned in the section before this, Thomas Jefferson was an evangelist of pasta. Strangely, this fixture of American history is credited with popularizing dried pasta in North America!

In the 1780s, Jefferson enjoyed his first macaroni (which is what the French called any kind of pasta) in Paris. Considering the word “macaroni” is linked to the Greek word for sacramental food (“blessed”/makar), it’s no surprise that Jefferson found himself blessed by the pasta.

Jefferson loved pasta so much, he took notes on how to make it while in Naples! He even shipped two cases of macaroni home to America (depending on how big a “case” is -what, like a truck’s fill?- I can relate). When he finally exhausted this supply, he dispatched Americans to acquire more macaroni from his contact in Naples! 

In 1798, not too long after Jefferson’s macaroni craze, the first American pasta factory was opened in Philadelphia by a French immigrant. Pasta became a status symbol in the homes of upper-class Americans who eventually started importing it from Sicily. However (and luckily for us all!) when more pasta factories opened, pasta lost it’s demand and became available to the working class by the Civil War.

By the 18th century, floods of Italians -many from Naples- immigrated to America. Those beautiful people brought pasta with them. Pasta shop after pasta shop popped up in Little Italy but no matter what, these Italians preferred imported pasta because of the durum wheat in it. These angels were who popularized pasta as we know it in North America.

SOURCE: Couleur Photography

The origins of the noodle is a topic I’ve wondered about for a long time! Foodie fam, I’m thrilled you requested this blog post! I enjoyed the research and I hope you did, too! Share your favorite Italian pasta dish, below! I would love to try them! I have never had enough.

Read about the Chinese origins of noodles in my earlier blog post!

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