Pretty much everybody knows and loves pasta, the signature dish of Italy. But do you know much
about the history of this delicious food? How did we end up with so many varieties of pasta?
The most primitive types of pasta were definitely known in Greek times, in the southern part of
Italy called Μεγάλη Ἑλλάς (Megálē Hellás), named by the Greeks who had founded many colonies
in the region. Pasta was also known in Etruria, a region North of Rome. Etruscans called it
làganon and the Greeks called it makària, which means the happy food, used in offerings.
The former refers to a mixture of flour and water producing large edible ribbons developing
later into what we call in Italian lasagne. The word makària closely resembles the modern word
maccheroni, often referred to as macaroni, a word connected with the Italian verb “maccare”,
meaning to press and dent, or since we are talking about pasta, to knead.
The interesting thing is the composition of this early pasta. We are referring here to
what can be called pasta secca, or dry pasta, vs. fresh pasta. This pasta is made with what
the Romans called Triticum Durum, or “emmer wheat”, a different kind of wheat from the
one normally known by the Greeks and the Romans. Possibly coming from Africa, this hard wheat has
a very high gluten content and little moisture. This offers the possibility of a final product
which is easier to stretch and harder to break, not to mention the fact that it maintains the
texture during the cooking process. And you know that Italians are very fussy about pasta al dente!
There is a high probability that the Etruscans already knew of durum wheat. Many of us learned
that it was Marco Polo who brought pasta back to Europe from China, but is this really true? The
answer is no. This piece of information seems to be completely anachronistic and false. From Marco
Polo’s diaries it is clear that he already had knowledge of pasta secca like lasagne,
a word that may be from the Arabic lawzinaj, vermicelli, which means little worms, and other
forms of pasta before he encountered it in the Far East. He even uses the word làgana. Furthermore,
he never mentions the fact that the wheat from China has the remarkable properties of long
shelf life and high gluten. Therefore, nothing really new was brought back from China to Venice.
Not only is it the case that China didn’t have durum wheat at the time, but pasta was actually
made with rice or other grains like millet, which also utilize very different kneading processes.
So it is quite possible that it was actually the Arabs who developed pasta, whose nomadic
tribes needed something easy to transport that was non-perishable. Perhaps we can also conclude
that both China and Europe innovated this independently of one another to develop
their own pasta, creating a myriad of variations, all pretty delicious
as the result of two very different cultures. Now focusing on how pasta developed in Italy,
let’s talk about the varieties of pasta, starting with pasta fresca. This is fresh pasta, as opposed
to dry, hard pasta, called pasta secca. Pasta fresca is not seen as better than pasta secca.
It’s simply a different product. Dry pastas are seen as better for certain kinds of sauces,
and Italians consume it as much as fresh pasta, if not more. But what anyone will immediately notice
is the incredible number of shapes and varieties that exist, each with their own distinct names.
The same pasta can even have different names according to the region in question.
How many varieties, you ask? Well there are more than 300 different types of pasta and over 1,000
different names. So we won’t get through them all right now, but let’s hit all of the classics.
First, let’s go over fresh pasta. This is made with eggs and farina 00, or flour zero-zero,
which is a low gluten flour. These can be homemade or bought in special stores
and supermarkets. Here are some varieties. Fettuccine. These are flat ribbons about one
centimeter wide. Tagliatelle.
These are also ribbons, though a little wider than fettuccine.
Pappardelle are very wide ribbons, usually prepared with wild boar sauce.
Lasagne should be familiar, these are the widest flat ribbons, prepared in layers,
and in between can be placed meat, cheese, and vegetables, in any combination.
Maltagliati are little chunks of irregularly shaped ribbon.
In fact it literally means badly cut or mishapen.
Orecchiette, or little ears, is the typical pasta of Apulia.
Amongst the fresh pastas there are types of pasta ripiena, which means filled.
Ravioli , which means small turnips, are little pillows stuffed with different
ingredients like cheese, meat, or vegetables. Tortellini, or small cakes, are made into a
ring or navel shape and stuffed with roughly the same things as ravioli.
Cannelloni or manicotti, meaning large sleeves or reeds, are tubes stuffed with spinach and ricotta.
Now we move on to pasta secca. These are factory-made with durum semolina
and water. These we will have to cover in groups according to shape, as there are so many.
First, pasta lunga, which are thin and long.
Spaghetti means little twines, and for whatever reason this has become the American conception of
pasta. Italians like spaghetti very much, but it is in no way special or preferred over other types
of pasta, so it is somewhat of a mystery as to how this became the quintessential pasta in America.
Bucatini is spaghetti with a hole through the noodle.
Linguine, which means little tongues, is a type of flat spaghetti.
Now let’s try pasta corta, or short pasta.
Conchiglie means shells, and for good reason, as they look like sea shells.
Farfalle means butterflies, though this pasta also resembles bow ties.
Fusilli and rotini are spiral pastas. Gemelli means twins, and these resemble braids.
Rigatoni are short tubes with grooves in them. These are also called ziti in the US.
Rotelle are like little wagon wheels. Strozzapreti, which means strangle-the-priest,
are like irregular channels that are supposed to be so good
that even a cautious priest would choke on them. And of course the very popular penne, which means
quills, because of the angled edges that resemble the instrument of a medieval scribe.
Finally let’s cover pasta in brodo, which means in a broth.
Lancette means little spears. Anellini means small rings.
Stelline means little stars. Ditalini means small thimbles.
Orzo are very tiny and barley-shaped. And quadrettini are small squares.
As we said, there are several hundred types of pasta, so we have just scratched the surface,
but these are more or less the classics, so it is likely that we have covered every
single pasta you were aware of, and hopefully introduced you to a few new ones as well.