0:00

The following is an on-core

0:02

presentation of Everything Everywhere

0:04

Daily. There is a very good chance

0:06

that many of you listening to

0:08

the sound of my voice have had

0:11

pasta maybe within the last week. Pasta

0:13

is a simple, affordable food that

0:15

comes in a wide variety of

0:17

forms. It can be served with

0:19

almost anything and in a wide

0:22

variety of styles. And despite its

0:24

current global nature, pasta is

0:26

a food that originated in

0:28

Italy. Or did it. Learn more about

0:31

pasta, how it originated, and

0:33

how it spread around the

0:35

world on this episode of

0:37

Everything Everywhere Daily. This

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episode is sponsored by

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time on Minecraft movie only in

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theaters. The food that we know

2:06

is pasta came from Italy. There

2:08

is a bit more to the

2:10

story than that, and I'll get

2:12

to it in a bit, but

2:14

for all practical purposes, we can

2:16

call it an Italian food. Pretty

2:19

much every type of pasta has

2:21

a name of Italian origin, and

2:23

the word pasta itself is Italian.

2:25

The word pasta comes from the

2:27

Italian word for paste, because in

2:29

a draw form it has a

2:31

paste-like consistency. However, there are some

2:33

who think that it actually comes

2:35

from a Greek word of the

2:37

same name via Latin, which describes

2:40

a barley porridge. The definition of

2:42

pasta is any unleavened dough made

2:44

out of wheat with water and

2:46

or eggs. It is also usually

2:48

but not always boiled. The history

2:50

of pasta is actually difficult to

2:52

determine. Pasta is an extremely simple

2:54

dish and it's really not that

2:56

far from bread. Take some bread

2:58

dough, shape it and boil it,

3:01

and you basically have pasta. Before

3:03

we start talking about Italy, there

3:05

is one country we have to

3:07

bring up because I'm sure that

3:09

many of you may have thought

3:11

about it before. China. Pasta-like noodles

3:13

have been in China for thousands

3:15

of years. I'm not going to

3:17

dwell too much on it because

3:19

Chinese cuisine and Chinese noodles are

3:22

worthy of its own episode. The

3:24

big question that people have debated

3:26

for a long time is if

3:28

pasta originated in China. In fact,

3:30

there was a story floating around

3:32

that pasta came to Italy from

3:34

China via Marco Polo in the

3:36

late 13th century. The origin of

3:38

that story may have come from

3:41

a passage in Marco Polo's travels.

3:43

However, it appears that he was

3:45

referencing a food from Italy known

3:47

as Lagana. Also, the earliest evidence

3:49

of the Marco Pola story actually

3:51

comes from the Macaroni journal, which

3:53

was published by the American National

3:55

Pasta Association. So, there's really no

3:57

evidence for the story. Likewise, there

3:59

have been theories that pasta, or

4:02

at least noodles, were brought into

4:04

Italy via the moors when they

4:06

conquered Sicily. However, there isn't a

4:08

whole lot of evidence for this

4:10

either. The other reason why it

4:12

is believed that pasta didn't come

4:14

from somewhere else is that there

4:16

may be evidence of pasta dating

4:18

back at least 2,000 years in

4:20

Italy. There is a fourth century

4:23

BC tomb in Italy that has

4:25

an image painted on it that

4:27

seems to show people holding a

4:29

bowl of something that looks like

4:31

pasta, in particular spaghetti. However, this

4:33

too is open to interpretation. In

4:35

the first century, the Roman poet

4:37

Horace made a reference to Lagonam,

4:39

also known as Lagona, which were

4:41

thin sheets of fried dough. In

4:44

the second century, the Greek grammarian

4:46

Athenius of necratus gave a recipe

4:48

for lagona, which consisted of sheets

4:50

of dough made from wheat flour,

4:52

lettuce juice, and deep fried oil.

4:54

The Jerusalem Talmud, which was compiled

4:56

in the 4th century, speaks of

4:58

a food known as Itrium, which

5:00

was a boiled dough. The point

5:03

of all this being is that

5:05

there were very early references in

5:07

Italy and around the Mediterranean that

5:09

referenced either pasta or some sort

5:11

of pasta-like food. Given how simple

5:13

pasta is and how close it

5:15

is to bread, it's highly probable

5:17

that it was developed independently in

5:19

China and in other places around

5:21

the Mediterranean. The first reference to

5:24

something that we can definitively say

5:26

is pasta in Italy dates back

5:28

to the late 13th and early

5:30

14th century. The writer Bocaccio wrote

5:32

in his book The De Cameron

5:34

about a fantasy of a mountain

5:36

made of Parmesan trees with macaroni

5:38

and Ravioli rolling down it. There

5:40

were also references to Noki and

5:42

Vermicelli and other works indicating that

5:45

there were multiple varieties of pasta

5:47

already at this time. One thing

5:49

we do know is that sometime

5:51

around the 14th and 15th century

5:53

there was a change in pasta.

5:55

Pasta up until this point was

5:57

made fresh. Today it's known as

5:59

pasta fresca. The big development was

6:01

dried pasta, or pasta seca. This

6:03

was a pretty simple development, but

6:06

it was huge in that it

6:08

allowed for the preservation of an

6:10

easy to prepare meal. Dried pasta

6:12

was something that could be cooked

6:14

with very little preparation. Italian

6:17

pasta of this period also

6:19

began to be made primarily

6:21

with semolina, which is coarsely

6:23

ground Durham wheat. Durham wheat

6:25

was originally imported to Italy from

6:28

Arab traders and is considered a

6:30

hard wheat in that it's difficult

6:32

to mill. However, as a dough, it's

6:34

considered to be very soft, which is

6:36

why it makes for better wheat for

6:38

pasta and is not necessarily good for bread.

6:41

What makes Durham ideal for pasta

6:43

is its higher gluten content. Today,

6:45

most pasta is made out of

6:47

Durham wheat, and in Italy, by

6:50

law, anything labeled as pasta without

6:52

any special qualifiers has to be

6:54

made out of Durham wheat. The

6:56

consumption of pasta in the Middle Ages

6:58

was nothing like how you've probably

7:00

had it. For starters, it

7:02

was usually cooked much longer than

7:04

it is today. The pasta would

7:06

have been softer and not cooked

7:09

Aldente. Aldente is an Italian

7:11

term that literally means to the

7:13

tooth. When applied to pasta, it

7:15

refers to the consistency that's achieved

7:17

when pasta is cooked to be firm

7:19

to the bite. What pasta was served

7:21

with was also very different. It would

7:23

be served with things like raisins, cheese,

7:26

meat, butter, sugar, cinnamon, and olive oil.

7:28

tomato sauce did not exist at

7:30

the time. It also became something that

7:32

was consumed by the wealthy simply

7:34

because of the amount of time required

7:36

to make it. While pasta is simple

7:39

in terms of the ingredients, in terms

7:41

of the ingredients, The cutting and

7:43

shaping of pasta was very time

7:45

consuming, regardless of whether it was

7:47

fresh or dried. One of the big changes

7:50

to pasta, and the thing that brought

7:52

it to the masses, was the development

7:54

of pasta machines. Cutting and shaping

7:56

pasta was time consuming, but it

7:58

was also something that was ripe

8:01

for automation. In the early 17th

8:03

century, rudimentary pasta machines were being

8:05

used in Naples, and the first

8:07

pasta factory was licensed in Venice,

8:09

Italy, in 1740. It was the

8:12

automation of pasta production that turned

8:14

it into a food for the

8:16

lower classes. Neapolitans were once called

8:18

leaf eaters, but by the early

8:21

18th century they were now called

8:23

macaroni eaters. In fact pasta became

8:25

so prevalent that it went from

8:27

being associated with the nobility to

8:30

being associated with beggars, but the

8:32

upper class did still eat it.

8:34

Thomas Jefferson is credited with bringing

8:36

pasta to the United States. When

8:39

he served in France, he purchased

8:41

a macaroni mold from Italy that

8:43

he brought back to Virginia, and

8:45

he also reportedly had macaroni shipped

8:47

from Europe to the US. At

8:50

the time, all pasta was commonly

8:52

referred to as macaroni. The word

8:54

macaroni comes from a Sicilian phrase

8:56

for needing dough vigorously. 1790 was

8:59

also the very first year that

9:01

a written recipe for pasta was

9:03

created that used tomato sauce. The

9:05

19th century saw major changes in

9:08

the consumption and preparation of pasta.

9:10

Pasta manufacturing became industrialized. Flower milling

9:12

became mechanized, which further reduced the

9:14

cost of flour and made pasta

9:16

even cheaper. Pre-packaged dried pasta was

9:19

able to be sold and purchased

9:21

by almost anyone. Pasta factories opened

9:23

outside of Italy, but for the

9:25

most part pasta was still mostly

9:28

an Italian dish. In 1844, the

9:30

recipe for spaghetti and meatballs was

9:32

published for the very first time.

9:34

What really spread the popularity of

9:37

pasta was the migration of Italians,

9:39

particularly to the United States and

9:41

South America. The spread of pasta

9:43

was very similar to that of

9:45

pizza in the 20th century. It

9:48

started out as a dish that

9:50

was considered to be exclusively Italian.

9:52

If you wanted a pasta dish,

9:54

you probably had to go to

9:57

an Italian restaurant that specialized in

9:59

pasta. However, over time, just

10:01

as with pizza, pasta entered mainstream

10:03

culture. It became popularized in

10:05

movies such as Lady in the Tramp. After

10:07

the Second World War, soldiers who had

10:10

served in Italy came home and brought

10:12

their love of pasta back with them,

10:14

again very similar to the story of

10:16

pizza. From there, it escaped being

10:18

a dish served mostly in Italian

10:20

restaurants. Dried pasta was cheap and easy

10:22

to prepare, which was one of the

10:25

reasons it spread in popularity. A meal of

10:27

spaghetti and meatballs could be prepared

10:29

in just a few minutes for

10:31

very little money. As pasta

10:33

expanded geographically, the number of

10:36

pasta varieties expanded as

10:38

well. Today there are over 300 known

10:40

types of pasta, many of which are

10:42

just variations on a similar theme. Despite

10:44

being made out of pretty much

10:47

the same ingredients, the different shapes

10:49

of pasta are often designed for

10:51

different reasons. Some types of pasta,

10:53

such as rigatoni, have ridges on the

10:56

edge to make it easier for thicker,

10:58

chunkier sauces to adhere to the pasta.

11:00

Other smoother pasta is designed to

11:02

be consumed with more liquid runny

11:05

sauces. lasagna is considered to be

11:07

a pasta dish, but there are

11:09

several things about it that make it

11:11

unique. First, it's probably the oldest known

11:13

pasta as it dates back to the

11:15

food Lagana. And it's one of the

11:17

few pasta dishes where pasta is baked

11:20

and not boiled. The global pasta

11:22

market today has become enormous.

11:25

Worldwide sales of pasta in

11:27

2023 are estimated to be

11:29

$68 billion, with projections showing

11:31

the market reaching $90 billion

11:33

by the year 2030. In

11:35

2011, a global survey conducted

11:37

by the British non-profit Oxfam

11:39

found that pasta was the

11:41

most popular dish around the

11:43

world, beating out meat, rice,

11:46

and pizza. It are in the top

11:48

place on five different continents, including

11:50

countries such as the Philippines, Guatemala,

11:53

Brazil, South Africa, and of course,

11:55

Italy. The number one country in

11:57

terms of pasta consumption per capita

11:59

is, not surprisingly, Italy, where each

12:02

person eats on average 23 kilograms

12:04

of pasta per year. The two

12:06

other biggest countries in terms of

12:08

consumption are Tunisia and Venezuela. Italians

12:10

consume about three times more pasta

12:13

each year than Americans do. Pasta

12:15

has a strange history. From its

12:17

shadowy past originating somewhere we're totally

12:19

not sure, it has become a

12:21

staple Italian dish. It used to

12:23

be a food for the wealthy,

12:26

but it's now considered to be

12:28

one of the cheapest meals you

12:30

can make. It can be very

12:32

difficult to make fresh, but incredibly

12:34

easy to make if it's dried.

12:37

Its long history and unique properties

12:39

of being easy to ship and

12:41

preserve are just some of the

12:43

reasons why pasta has become the

12:45

world's most favorite dish in the

12:48

21st century. The associate producers are

12:50

Austin Oakton and Cameron Kiefer. I

12:52

want to thank everyone who supports

12:54

the show over on Patreon. Your

12:56

support helps make this podcast possible.

12:59

I'd also like to thank all

13:01

the members of the Everything Everywhere

13:03

community who are active on the

13:05

Facebook group and the Discord server.

13:07

If you'd like to join in

13:10

the discussion, there are links to

13:12

both in the show notes. And

13:14

as always, if you leave a

13:16

review or send me a boostogram,

13:18

you too can have it read

13:21

on the show.